Eircom's incoming executive chairman Pierre Danon is set to receive more than twice the salary of his predecessor, Sir Anthony O'Reilly.
The French businessman's remuneration package will be worth in excess of €300,000 per annum for his work with Eircom, which delists from the stock exchange today following a €2.36 billion takeover led by the Australian investment fund Babcock & Brown.
His pay will be considerably higher than the €132,000 that Sir Anthony received last year from Eircom, whose latest takeover constitutes a fourth change of ownership since the Government sold out of the telecoms group in 1999.
Mr Danon has a personal stake in Eircom and his position embraces an executive function that Sir Anthony did not have. But unlike Sir Anthony, former chief executive of Heinz, he has never had overall charge of an international group. However, he has considerable telecoms experience, thanks to his time as chief executive of BT's retail arm.
He left BT to become chief operating officer at IT services group CapGemini but was sacked after Le Figaro reported his interview for the post of chief executive at Accor, the French hotel group. In the event, he failed to secure that job.
He later became a senior adviser to the investment bank JP Morgan, which advised Babcock & Brown on its approach for Eircom.
With the deal now closed, Babcock & Brown is expected to appoint one of its own executives, Rex Comb, to the post of chief executive.
Details of Mr Danon's remuneration package are set out in the 400-page prospectus for a €350 million bond issue last week by BCM Ireland Finance, one of the vehicles that Babcock & Brown is using to execute the transaction. Both Eircom and Babcock & Brown have refused to release that document, which is said to set out the corporate plan for the telco.
Following the deal, Eircom's employee share ownership trust (Esot) has increased its stake in the company to 35 per cent from about 20 per cent.
The trust told its members earlier this summer that the new owners plan to sell off a stake in Eircom or float its shares on the stock exchange within three to five years.
