Unilever CEO Polman Gets 6 Million Pounds for ‘Exceptional’ Year

Unilever, the world’s second-largest consumer-products company, said Chief Executive Officer Paul Polman earned 6.03 million pounds ($9 million) in 2012, including a 1.95 million-pound bonus, as sales growth topped expectations and outpaced rivals such as Procter & Gamble Co. (PG)

Polman’s base salary will increase 3.6 percent to 1.01 million pounds in 2013, following a 6 percent increase to 975,200 pounds in July last year, Unilever said today in its annual report. Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Huet’s salary won’t change this year, after he got a 5 percent raise to 714,000 pounds last July. The London- and Rotterdam-based maker of Dove soaps and Axe deodorant said Polman had an “exceptional year,” and said Huet’s performance was “strong.”

Polman’s bonus was twice his salary, the most allowed under the terms of his compensation agreement. The CEO, who joined in 2009, got the maximum payout by beating targets for underlying sales growth, volume growth and operating profit as a percentage of sales. Underlying sales, which grew 6.9 percent last year, exclude the impact of acquisitions and currency shifts. Huet’s bonus was 1.05 million pounds, or 147 percent of his salary.

Unilever (UNA) changed its compensation policy to decide bonuses according to the three measures in 2011, to encourage a “clearer long-term focus,” it said at the time. There will be no changes to the bonus plan in 2013, the company said today.

Unilever rose 0.9 percent to 31.12 euros at 4:04 p.m. in Amsterdam trading.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Boyle in London at mboyle20@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net