Vodafone pays CEO $3.6 million

Vodafone CEO Gent under fire for $3.6 million pay packet

LONDON, England -- Vodafone has paid Chief Executive Chris Gent 2.42 million pounds ($3.6 million) even though the company racked up Britain's biggest ever loss.

Europe's largest mobile phone company also said Gent received stock currently worth about £1.6 million ($2.23 million) as a bonus. Vodafone (VOD) posted an annual net loss of £16.2 billion earlier this month and has seen its shares tumble more than 40 percent this year.

Rival Deutsche Telekom (FDTE), in contrast, on Tuesday said it would not issue stock options to board members this year amid investors discontent over director's pay as the company's share price continues to fall.

A number of top executives have turned down bonus payouts because of investor criticism. E*Trade CEO Christos Cotsakos received an $80 million package last year, far more than his counterparts at other brokerage firms. After bowing to shareholder criticism, he agreed to a two-year contract with E*trade that provides no base salary and an annual bonus based exclusively on company performance.

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Gent's £1.6-million bonus, or 1.76 million additional shares, was granted at the height of the telecom boom, when it struck a deal to buy Germany's Mannesmann for $178 billion. At the times the pay-out was worth about £10 million, of which Gent has already received £5 million in cash.

In an attempt to deflect criticism, Vodafone also unveiled a new incentive scheme based on new performance targets and insisted Gent was still paid less on average than the heads of large European companies who earned between £3.4 million and £9.3 million.

"Award levels for the chief executive will be set by the remuneration committee to deliver total remuneration that is between the top 25 percent and 10 percent of the remuneration levels of other chief executives of large European companies,'' the annual report said.

Vodafone's stock fell 1.6 percent to 91.75 pence in early London trading on Wednesday.