JOHANNESBURG - Packages of MTN Group’s chief executive Rob Shuter and chief financial officer (CFO) Ralph Mupita jumped to a whopping R124.5million during the year ended December 2019 compared to R65.4m in 2018.
The company’s 2019 annual report, which was released yesterday, showed that Shuter received a 26percent increase on his total package to R58.2m compared to R42.92m in 2018.
Shuter’s package included a R17.3m salary compared with R15.2m in 2018, post employment benefits of R1.82m from R1.5m the prior year, R27.5m benefits up from R25.2m, and R1.1m in other benefits.
Shuter announced earlier this month that he would be stepping down from his role in March next year when his four-year fixed contract comes to an end.
The 25-year-old mobile operator, which has 251 million customers, said that it would look both internally and externally for a replacement candidate.
Shuter replaced Sifiso Debengwa, who stepped down in 2017 after the company was fined a hefty $5.2billion (R92.2bn) for unregistered SIM cards in Nigeria.
Shuter launched MTN’s Bright strategy, which defined the areas that the group needed to focus on to build a sustainable business.
The annual report said that Mupita’s total remuneration surged 66percent to R66.3m in 2019, up from R22.53m a year earlier.
Mupita received a R9.1m salary compared with R8.2m and a staggering R42.6m in other benefits from R559 000, R1.05m in post-employment benefits, and R13.43m in bonuses, up from R12.7m in 2018.
Mupita, who was previously chief executive at Old Mutual Emerging Markets, joined MTN in April 20017 and was recognised with four chief financial officers for the CFO of the Year awards last year, including for the role he played in turning MTN around.
Last year MTN managed to address some of the complex issues in Nigeria, which resulted in the listing of MTN Nigeria on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
The Nigeria listing was part of the agreement that related to the 2015 SIM registration fine of $5bn which was subsequently reduced to $1.6bn.
The company said that it paid its prescribed officers, including MTN Nigeria chief executive, Ferdi Moolman, Ebenezer Twum Asante, vice-president of MTN’s south east Africa and Ghana Region, and MTN South Africa chief executive Godfrey Motsa R167m, up from R176m in 2018.
Group chairperson Mcebisi Jonas said in the annual report that the group recorded growing maturity in the governance and management of ethics, and improvements in ethical culture as measured by the group culture audit among employees.
“MTN will continue to focus on earning the loyalty of stakeholders through proactive engagement and demonstrated ethical behaviours,” he said.
MTN shares rose 19.19percent on the JSE yesterday to close at R48.39.