The highest paid CEOs earned more in 2019

  • ECO News
  • 25 March 2020

Together, the leaders of EDP, Jerónimo Martins and Galp Energia gained 2.8% more than in 2018. António Mexia remains at the top.

The three best paid CEOs of the Portuguese stock market companies received, together, over six million euros last year, between fixed and variable remuneration. In the top 3 of the PSI-20, – which is composed of the CEO’s of EDP, Jerónimo Martins and Galp Energia – only one received less in 2019 than the previous year.

EDP’s leader, António Mexia, remains at the top of the list as the country’s best paid manager. In total, he received 2.17 million euros gross, although the amount shrank by 1.5% compared to 2.2 million euros received in 2018.

The fixed remuneration for 2019 was 1,015,024 euros, while the multiannual variable remuneration amounted to 826,407 euros. Both increased in relation to the previous year, so the sizeable difference in Mexia’s income is in the annual variable remuneration, which fell to almost half: 325,032 euros.

Still, Mexia won over two million euros. In 2018, he had been the only PSI-20 CEO in this group, but last year he received another element. The salary of Jerónimo Martins’ CEO, Pedro Soares dos Santos, increased, placing him back in the restricted group of managers who earned over two million euros.

The fixed remuneration of the CEO of the chain that owns Pingo Doce and Biedronka stood at 685 thousand euros last year. To this figure must be added 1.08 million euros of variable component – awarded and paid in 2019, following the performance evaluation in 2018 – as well as 306,395.81 for the retirement savings plan.

After the accounts were closed, the salary of Pedro Soares dos Santos amounted to 2.07 million euros, representing an increase of 8.8% compared to the 1.9 million that Pedro Soares dos Santos had received in 2018.

Closing the top 3 of the highest paid managers in Portugal is Carlos Gomes da Silva. Galp Energia’s CEO also saw his pay rise last year, but not enough to join the two million euro club.

Galp Energia’s CEO’s overall remuneration increased by 1.5 percent to almost 1.8 million euros after receiving 1.75 million euros last year.

The fixed component totalled 980 thousand euros, but among variable remunerations, PPR and others, the total value was almost doubled. Last year’s bonus was 181,000 euros, lower than the 227,000 euros in multiannual bonus. With PPR alone, it received 245 thousand euros.

Together, the leaders of EDP, Jerónimo Martins and Galp Energia won 6.016 million euros last year. All three received – between fixed and variable remuneration – 2.8% more than the 5.852 million received in 2018.