Levy's Compensation For 2013 Up 77%

Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy received a 77% pay raise last year earning total compensation of 4,800,000 Euros, according to a recently filed financial document by the holding company. That translates to about $6.34 million at today’s exchange rates.

That does not include a 2012 deferred compensation payment of approximately $22 million that Levy received, which covered earnings tied to performance goals and length of service under a payment program covering the 2003-2011 period. His earnings covering his work for just the 2012 period were 2,696,800 Euros, or about $3.73 million at today exchange rates.

By comparison to other holding companies, MDC Partner’s CEO Miles Nadal had total compensation of $20.7 million last year, more than double the almost $9.3 million he was paid in 2012. Interpublic Group CEO Michael Roth received $11.8 million in total pay last year, up 22% from 2012, and Omnicom CEO John Wren earned $18.1 million, also up 22%.

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For the last couple of years, Levy has not taken a base salary. Instead, all of his compensation is tied to performance goals according to the company’s financial document. Among the factors considered are organic revenue growth, profit margin and earnings per share growth of the company’s stock and how that compares to competing holding companies WPP, Omnicom and Interpublic Group. Also factored in is total shareholder return.

In addition, certain qualitative criteria are factored into the formula for determining Levy’s pay, which vary from year to year. In 2013, the qualitative criteria “involved preparing the future direction of the Group and preparing for the development of the Group’s medium and long-term ability to make profits.” 

Levy’s big move on that front, of course, was entering into the proposed merger with Omnicom, which both parties have acknowledged is struggling to gain approval on several fronts. At the same time, it has been widely reported that the companies are in disagreement on a number of issues about how to proceed post-merger.

Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts was the second-highest-paid executive at the company in 2013, receiving total compensation of nearly 2.7 million Euros (approximately $3.7 million), including close to 1.9 million Euros in “variable” pay on top of a base salary of 753,173 Euros. The financial filing reported that Saatchi & Saatchi missed its organic growth and operating margin targets for 2013, and that Roberts would therefore not receive any variable bonus this year, based on 2013 results.

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