The total compensation of TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné increased by 23.33% in 2022 compared to 2021, reaching 7.33 million euros, more than before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a financial document published on Friday.
In 2022, the executive's total annual compensation amounted to 7,331,079 euros, an increase of 1,386,950 euros compared to 2021, according to the elements communicated in the group's universal registration document.
In 2019, the year before the pandemic, it amounted to 6.15 million euros.
In detail, the CEO sees his fixed and variable compensation, as well as his benefits in kind, increase in total by 9.6%, to 4.35 million euros in 2022. This is an increase “
equivalent to that benefiting on average to executives of the common social base in France (+9.8%)
”, explains the group in this document intended for shareholders, investors and financial analysts.
Remuneration notably includes a fixed base salary of 1.55 million euros (+10.71%) and variable remuneration of 2.73 million euros (+9.01%).
The increase is mainly driven by the allocation of a greater number of performance shares, 100,000 in 2022 against 90,000 in 2021, "
to be more in [compliance] with the levels practiced by the markets
".
A controversy this fall
For 2022, the valuation of these shares - calculated in part on the basis of a share price of 37.22 euros - amounts to 2.98 million euros (1.97 million euros in 2021), i.e. an increase of 50.93%.
These components of compensation - fixed, variable and number of performance shares - will be submitted for approval by the ordinary general meeting of shareholders convened on May 26.
On a proposal from the board of directors, shareholders will also have to vote on a motion providing for a 10% increase in 2023 in the total compensation of the CEO.
“
We could have done without it in the period we are living in
”, reacted last week the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune on franceinfo, calling for “
sobriety
”.
The boss of the oil major had been under fire last year for his statements on the increase in his salary by 51.7% in 2021 to 5.94 million euros, an amount at the heart of a controversy this fall, in the midst of a wage dispute in the group's refineries.
This increase followed a 36.4% drop in his compensation in 2020, the result of a salary cut then presented as "
voluntary
" during the health crisis and the decline in the variable part of his salary that year linked to the group results.
