Molson Coors CEO’s pay package shrinks in 2010

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The CEO of Molson Coors Brewing Co. saw the value of his pay package shrink 13 percent in 2010 as the brewer dealt with falling beer sales.
Peter Swinburn’s total compensation was valued at $7.1 million for the fiscal year. That’s down from $8.1 million the year before, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory document filed this week.
Most of the decline was accounted for by shrinking stock awards, which fell 34 percent to $2.3 million.
Swinburn’s base salary totaled $941,667, 8 percent higher than in 2009.
Molson Coors gave him a nearly $1.9 million performance-based cash bonus, 10 percent lower than the one he was given in 2009. His compensation also included $1.5 million worth of options awards, up 10 percent from the prior year.
He also received $384,368 in other compensation, which includes perks such as sports tickets, a car allowance and parking allowance. That’s up 41 percent from the year before.
Swinburn, 58, took over as the company’s CEO and president in July 2008 when then-CEO Leo Kiely left to lead operations of MillerCoors, the company’s joint venture with SABMiller’s U.S. unit.
Molson Coors, based in Denver, has struggled with falling beer sales for some time and increasing costs for ingredients. The company earned $707.7 million, or $3.78 per share, for its most recent fiscal year, down from $720.4 million, or $3.87 per share, in fiscal 2009. Its annual revenue rose to $4.7 billion from $4.4 billion.
The Associated Press formula calculates an executive’s total compensation during the last fiscal year by adding salary, bonuses, perks, above-market interest the company pays on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and stock options awarded during the year. The AP formula does not count changes in the present value of pension benefits. That makes the AP total slightly different in most cases from the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The value that a company assigned to an executive’s stock and option awards for 2010 was the present value of what the company expected the awards to be worth to the executive over time. Companies use one of several formulas to calculate that value. However, the number is just an estimate, and what an executive ultimately receives will depend on the performance of the company’s stock in the years after the awards are granted. Most stock compensation programs require an executive to wait a specified amount of time to receive shares or exercise options.