NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> said on Friday its Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein was awarded about $53.97 million of compensation in its 2007 fiscal year, when the Wall Street bank largely skirted subprime mortgage losses that plagued many rivals.
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc <GS.N> said on Friday its Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein was awarded about $53.97 million of compensation in its 2007 fiscal year, when the Wall Street bank largely skirted subprime mortgage losses that plagued many rivals.
Blankfein also realized $45.76 million from the vesting of stock, bringing his compensation and other awards to about $100 million, according to Goldman's proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The compensation amount reflects a methodology used by many executive pay consultants. It differs from Goldman's calculation of Blankfein's "approved 2007 compensation" of $68.5 million, which incorporates a $67.9 million "year-end bonus" payable in cash, restricted stock and stock options.
!ADVERTISEMENT!According to the proxy filing, Blankfein was awarded a $600,000 salary, a $26.99 million bonus and $384,157 of other compensation for fiscal 2007, which ended in November.
Blankfein was also granted restricted stock and stock options valued at $26 million as of the December 2006 grant date, the filing shows. Other compensation included $233,053 for a car and driver, and several other items.
Goldman's profit rose 22 percent to a record $11.6 billion, or $24.73 per share, in fiscal 2007, helped by strong trading results and a prescient bet on a decline in the value of subprime mortgages, which go to people with poor credit.
"Our financial performance was very strong relative to our core competitor group," which includes Bear Stearns Cos <BSC.N>, Citigroup Inc <C.N>, JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N>, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc <LEH.N>, Merrill Lynch & Co <MER.N> and Morgan Stanley <MS.N>, Goldman said.
Compensation is based on salary, bonus, the value of stock options and other awards granted during the year, and incentives and perks.
According to the same methodology, compensation for other top Goldman executives included a respective $53.04 million and $52.91 million for Co-Chief Operating Officers Gary Cohn and Jon Winkelried, $42.58 million for Chief Financial Officer David Viniar, and $39.85 million for Chief Administrative Officer Edward Forst, the filing shows.
The totals are not directly comparable with those reported for prior years because Goldman, like other public companies, changed its presentation to meet new regulatory rules. Some awards concerned periods before fiscal 2007, Goldman said.
"Year-end bonuses" for other executives, also payable in cash, restricted stock and options, included $66.9 million for both Cohn and Winkelried, $56.9 million for Viniar and $43.4 million for Forst, Goldman said.
In the proxy, Goldman said its board urged the rejection at its April 10 annual meeting of two shareholder proposals on executive compensation.
One would give shareholders an advisory vote on pay. The other would stop Goldman from awarding new stock options to top executives. The latter is being offered by Evelyn Davis, who has complained about excessive executive pay for decades.
Blankfein, 53, became chairman and chief executive in June 2006. He replaced Henry Paulson, who became U.S. Treasury Secretary.
(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
