3634 days ago
A copy of the Northern Petroleum (NOP) annual report lands on my desk. Thud. A lot of trees went to produce this weighty tome which places undue prominence on 'elf n safey, Corporate & Social Responsibility, etc, etc. That is all a smokescreen of sanctimony to mask an act of brutal AIM Cesspit crony capitaism. Naturally I turn straight to page 87 of 96 and there it is. Bonuses for directors! WTF?
In 2013 the bonuses for Northern’s three executive directors were: Keith Bush (CEO) £30,000, Nick Morgan (FD) £24,000 and Graham Heard £20,000. In 2012 no directors were awarded bonuses.
I would point out that in 2013 Northern reported a loss before tax from continuing operations of 27.266 million Euro. The share price was 55p at the start of the year. It ended the year at 30p and is now 26p.
Heck if the company had only seen its shares slump by 30% rather than halve what sort on bonus would the lucky lads have picked up then? This is obviously a case where the interests of greedy directors are utterly non-aligned with those of shareholders. And also of staff. I note that given Northern’s vast cashburn, about half a dozen staff have been handed p45s in the past month or so. So let’s fire a few workers to pay for bonuses for directors who have destroyed shareholder value big time. Do you think that is right? I do not.
I put it to Keith Bush that this boardroom greed was just not acceptable and he replied that the bonuses were:
