ROB TOPFER, the financier who orchestrated the takeover of Eircom by Australian investment fund Babcock Brown Capital, received a remuneration package worth €7.34 million last year. Babcock Brown Capital is an offshoot of Australian investment bank Babcock Brown, whose annual report shows that Mr Topfer was among the five highest-paid executives in the bank during 2007.

Mr Topfer, global head of corporate and structured finance for the bank, is a non-executive director of Eircom and one of the most powerful figures on its board. His remuneration package at the bank last year of 12.23 million Australian dollars (€7.34 million) was down from A$14.97 million (€8.98 million) in 2006, a year in which he received a bonus worth €6.5 million for orchestrating the Eircom deal. He also receives a salary of A$100,000 (€60,000) in respect of his non-executive directorship of Babcock Brown Capital, which owns 57 per cent of Eircom. The telco’s other major shareholder is the Eircom employee share ownership trust (Esot), which owns 35 per cent of the business.

In the face of investor pressure, the fund has radically changed its investment policy. Having signalled only in December that it had formally allocated A$445 million (€267 million) to pursue “specific identified investments”, the fund changed that stance in February to say that it would avoid making any new investments and use more than A$300 million (€180 million) to buy back up to 50 per cent of its shares. Mr Topfer indicated then that the fund was not contemplating any immediate sale of Eircom or its assets.

He also raised the prospect of selling Eircom to a European incumbent telco in the medium term as an alternative to a formal division of its infrastructure and retail operations.

The last annual report for the fund – for the year to June 2007 – shows that Eircom chief executive Rex Comb received remuneration of A$1.85 million (€1.11 million).

Former chief executive Phil Nolan received a termination payment of A$2.93 million (€1.76 million) when he left the company in August 2006 and former finance chief Peter Lynch received $A2.49 million (€1.49 million) when he left in October 2006.

The remuneration of Eircom chief operating officer Andrew MacLeod was A$1.59 million (€0.95 million) in the last fiscal year and head of retail Cathal Magee received A$1.43 million (€0.86 million)