Best-paid listed insurance execs

The best-paid chief executive of the country’s largest insurers is Sanlam Group’s Ian Kirk, who earned a total of R23.014 million in 2017. Discovery CEO Adrian Gore was paid R17.65 million in the year to June 30, former MMI Holdings’ CEO was paid a total of R17.494 million, while Old Mutual Limited (/Old Mutual Emerging Markets) chief executive Peter Moyo was paid R15.059 million.

New Liberty Holdings CEO David Munro was paid R8.519 million for the seven months to end-December, since joining from Standard Bank Group. This figure excludes various sign-on bonuses paid to him as these are deferred and require him to stay in the job for at least three years.

Read: Standard Bank pays Munro R20m bonus to stay at Liberty until 2022

This direct – and fair – comparison is possible for the first time following the publication of Old Mutual Limited’s pre-listing statement, in which director remuneration is disclosed. Some previous comparisons of the sector have included the pay for Old Mutual Plc boss Bruce Hemphill which, given that it is in pounds, is not like-for-like. Old Mutual has not previously disclosed the remuneration of the heads of its various units (with the exception of Nedbank), including previous CEO of Old Mutual Emerging Markets (OMEM) Ralph Mupita.

In terms of guaranteed packages only (basic pay plus any benefits), Kirk is the best-paid CEO of the five insurers (or six, if one includes Santam CEO Lizé Lamprechts) with R8.6 million in 2017. Gore received a guaranteed package of R7.455 million, while Kruger was paid R6.875 million. Moyo was paid R4.486 million in the year to end December. Munro would’ve been paid over R7.5 million in fixed pay had he been in the position for the full year.

There were better paid executives in 2017 than Kirk, however. Herschel Mayers, CEO of Discovery’s UK business VitalityLife, received a total package of R44.326 million but this includes remuneration in primarily pounds. Another of Discovery’s top brass is the third highest-paid: Neville Koopowitz, the CEO of the insurer’s other UK unit VitalityHealth.

His remuneration was paid only in pounds. Lamprechts, CEO of Sanlam subsidiary Santam, is the second highest-paid at R36.077 million, due to a R19 million payment as part of the assurer’s Out-Performance Plan (OPP). Former Liberty Holdings CEO Thabo Dloti was paid the fourth-highest (R24.975 million), but the bulk of this comprises a R19 million “separation payment” following his resignation in May.

It is worth noting that a number of Discovery executives are better-remunerated than Gore, including Mayers, Koopowitz as well as Discovery Life chief Hylton Kallner who received a total of R17.8 million last year.

		Guranteed package	Short-term incentive	Long-term incentive	Total
Herschel Mayers	Discovery CEO VitalityLife	R24.338m	R13.208m	R6.78m	R44.326m
Lizé Lamprechts	(Sanlam) CEO Santam	R5.201m	R6.3m	R5.576m	R36.077m
Neville Koopowitz	Discovery CEO VitalityHealth	R15.513m	R10.501m	R7.898m	R33.912m
Thabo Dloti	Liberty Holdings CEO	R4.348m	–	R1.531m	R24.975m
Ian Kirk	Sanlam CEO	R8.608m	R10m	R4.406m	R23.014m
Hylton Kallner	Discovery CEO Life	R5m	R3.65m	R8.53m	R17.8m
Adrian Gore	Discovery CEO	R7.455m	R3.569m	R6.141m	R17.65m
Nicolaas Kruger	MMI Holdings CEO	R6.875m	–	R10.619m	R17.494m
Anton Geldenhuys	Sanlam Chief Actuary, Chief Risk Officer	R4.13m	R4.25m	R9.08m	R17.46m
Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba	Discovery executive director	R4.395m	R2.328m	R10.701m	R17.424m
Alan Pollard	Discovery President of Product and Innovation: Vitality Group	R6.289m	R1.74m	R8.631m	R16.66m
Peter Moyo	Old Mutual Limited CEO	R4.486m	R10.572m**		R15.059m
Heinie Werth	Sanlam FD	R4.965m	R4.5m	R5.462m	R14.927m
Robert Roux	Sanlam CE Investments	R4.692m	R6.8m	R2.838m	R14.33m
Barry Swartzberg	Discovery CEO Vitality Group	R5.001m	R2.731m	R5.858m	R13.59m
Richard Farber	Discovery executive director	R5.158m	R2.176m	R5.858m	R13.192m
Dr Jonathan Broomberg	Discovery CEO Health	R4.701m	R2.306m	R5.731m	R12.738m
Kenny Rabson	Discovery CEO Invest	R4.701m	R2.17m	R5.814m	R12.685m
John Robertson	Discovery executive director	R4.362m	R2.05m	R6.072m	R12.484m
Themba Mvusi	Sanlam CE Group Market Development	R4.309m	R3.5m	R3.754m	R11.563m
Deon Viljoen	Discovery FD	R0.883m	R10m	–	R10.833m
Dr Penny Moumakwa	Discovery head of people and sustainable development	R3.263m	R1.575m	R5.139m	R9.977m
Mary Vilakazi	MMI Holdings FD, Deputy CEO	R4.688m	–	R4.785m	R9.473m
David Munro	Liberty Holdings CEO	R4.394m	R4.125m	–	R8.519m
Junior Ngulube	Sanlam CE Emerging Markets	R4.447m	R3.75m	–	R8.197m
Yegs Ramiah	Sanlam CE Brand	R3.639m	–	R2.005m	R6.83m
Jurie Strydom	Sanlam CE Personal Finance	R2.771m	R4m	–	R6.771m
Casper Troskie	Liberty Holdings FD	R4.397m	–	R1.662m	R6.059m
Hubert Brody	Sanlam CE Personal Finance	R2.286m	–	R2.561m	R4.847m

* Sanlam remuneration differs from that disclosed in its annual report, as long-term incentives which vested in 2017 are used (vs those awarded in 2017, included in its disclosure). This is consistent with the disclosure by other insurers.

** This is a combined figure for both short-term and long-term incentives. 

¹ Remuneration consists of GBP and rand components

² Includes Out-Performance Plan (OPP) payment of R19m

³ Salary and incentive are paid in GBP

⁴ Resigned May 30 2017. Includes separation payment of R19.096 million

⁵ Salary and incentive are paid in USD

⁶ Resigned as FD on April 30 017

⁷ Appointed May 1 2017

⁸ Appointed May 30 2017. Excludes long-term sign-on award, which vests in future

⁹ Resigned January 5 2018. Includes R1.186 million lump sum in lieu of notice period plus accrued leave

¹⁰ Appointed June 1 2017. An OPP was granted with effect from January 1 2016 in respect of his role as deputy CE of Sanlam Personal Finance. A proportional amount of this is included to reflect the period from June 1 2017 when he became a prescribed officer.

¹¹ Resigned December 31 2017

¹² Retired May 31 2017

The top-paid finance director among the five was Sanlam FD Heinie Werth, who was paid a total of R14.927 million in 2017. Discovery had a change of FD in its 2017 financial year, with Richard Faber stepping down and Deon Viljoen taking the position from May 1. Viljoen was paid a sign-on bonus of R10 million (with a two-year retention). Mary Vilakazi, then FD and deputy CEO of MMI Holdings, was paid R9.473 million in the year to June 30. Vilakazi was tapped by FirstRand to be COO from July 1 2018. She was replaced as FD by Ritso Ketola in January 2018.

Given its separation from Plc, Old Mutual Limited (/OMEM) did not disclose remuneration of an FD for 2017 (Ingrid Johnson fills this role at Plc level, and is on Old Mutual Limited’s board). Casper Troskie, who resigned as Liberty Holdings FD on December 31 to join Old Mutual Limited from March 27 2018, will be paid R7.8 million this year.

	Market capitalisation
Old Mutual Plc*	R210.6bn
Sanlam	R170.3bn
Discovery Holdings	R104.5bn
Liberty Holdings	R35.3bn
MMI Holdings	R31.5bn

* This includes the value of Old Mutual Limited (OMEM and Nedbank) as well as Quilter (previously Old Mutual Wealth).

It is worth noting that MMI, Liberty Holdings and Old Mutual Limited do not disclose remuneration for any executives other than the CEO and FD. Sanlam and Discovery publish remuneration data for practically all top executives in their respective businesses.

Hilton Tarrant can still be contacted at [email protected].

He holds shares in Discovery, acquired in September 2013.