Glanbia’s managing director, Siobhán Talbot, saw her remuneration jump 7.4 per cent to €2.03 million last year after the global nutrition group posted a better-than-expected set of earnings.
The most senior businesswoman in the State earned a basic salary of €761,000, while also benefiting from a €202,000 pension contribution, €574,000 in a cash bonus and €465,000 of stock incentives, according to the group’s annual report.
Hugh McGuire, chief executive of the group's biggest division, Global Performance Nutrition (GPN), which targets the fitness industry with protein powders, shakes and bars, enjoyed the second-largest compensation package for the year, at €1.58 million.
This was buoyed by €353,000 of “other benefit”, including a €150,000 relocation payment as he relocated to Ireland from the US and benefited from €93,067 of overseas allowances, which are no longer payable.
Glanbia's market value rose by 6 per cent last week to almost €5.4 billion after the group reported 11.2 per cent earnings-per-share growth for 2016, to 87.66 cent, beating its own 8-10 per cent target. It also revived plans to sell a controlling 60 per cent stake in its Irish dairy division to its largest shareholder, the Glanbia Co-operative Society.
Shares distribution
Glanbia would receive about €200 million in cash under the deal. The co-op plans to sell about €155 million of its shares in the publicly-listed company to partly fund the deal and distribute a further €100 million of stock to its farmer members. All told, this would cut the co-op’s stake in Glanbia by 5 per cent to 31.5 per cent.
The share's surge was also fuelled by speculation that Glanbia could be a takeover target itself once it hives off control of the Dairy Ireland consumer foods and agribusiness units. French brokerage Exane BNP Paribas said in note to clients on Wednesday that the group could represent a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" for Japanese food and ingredients maker Ajinomoto.
The Kilkenny-based group controls between 12-13 per cent of the world’s €10 billion global sports nutrition market, with best-selling brands such as Optimum Nutrition and BNS. In the last six weeks, GPN spent €181 million acquiring Amazing Grass, a US plant-based “superfoods” company, and Dutch sports nutrition firm Body & Fit.
In the same period, another key division, Glanbia Nutritionals, entered into a 50:50 partnership with US dairy co-operatives to build a cheese-and-whey plant, at a cost of up to $425 million (€404.2 million).
