Carlos Brito, departing CEO of AB InBev who is leaving the company at the end of this month (inside.beer, 6.5.2021) can take home around EUR 95 million from earlier salary commitments and stock options that he was granted by his employer more than 10 years ago. This is the result of a study by the remuneration consultancy hkp on the salaries of top European managers, which analyzed the annual reports of major European companies.
The majority of Carlos Brito's earnings result from stock option programs from 2008 and 2009 that Brito took advantage of last year when he purchased almost 1.5 million shares at a price of around 10 euros and another 960,000 shares at a price of around 33 euros. Since no date on which the stock options were exercised is specified in the annual report itself, the stock price of around EUR 57 at the end of the 2020 financial year was assumed for the estimate.
Last year, Brito’s salary was significantly lower than the year’s before because of AB InBev’s weak performance in the course of the COVID-19 crisis and the high level of debt following the SAB Miller acquisition in 2016. Brito received only EUR 1.2 million in 2020 which placed him at the lower end of the companies listed in the STOXX share indices. The case is an example of how big the discrepancy can be between the remuneration granted and the remuneration actually received for managers.
Brito has not yet announced what he would like to do after working more than three decades for the world largest brewing group which he helped shaping himself from the very beginnings when he joined AmBev in Brazil in 1989. It should be clear, however, that a manager like him will not simply retire.
“In the last few weeks a lot of people have called me with suggestions and suggestions. I wrote them all down, but I didn't make up my mind,” Brito told Brazilian business news Exame. “My father, a doctor in Brazil, is 89 years old and worked in his medical office until he was 86. I'm 61 and now I'm thinking about the next 25 years,” he added.
