Bwin.party executives play their cards right for winning pay deal
BWIN.PARTY shareholders yesterday voted in a new pay scheme offering top executives at the online gaming group up to 550 per cent of their annual salary.
At an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in Gibraltar, some 70 per cent of voters waved the new deal through, but a significant 30 per cent objected.
The new incentive plan was designed to replace two former schemes created in 2011, when Bwin Interactive Entertainment merged with PartyGaming.
The vote allows the firm to award chief executive Norbert Teufelberger up to 550 per cent of his base salary and finance chief Martin Weigold up to 435 per cent of his salary.
But a spokesman told City A.M. those figures were “illustrative” and only in case of a “significant increase in shares”.
Bwin.party said that, of the 179m votes against the new scheme, nearly 50m came from activist investor SpringOwl – the group that only last week acquired a 6.1 per cent stake in the company.
However, it was “surprised” by the no vote from Emerald Bay and Stinson Ridge, the companies of PartyPoker founders Ruth Parasol DeLeon and Russell DeLeon.