Blue Label Telecoms has published its annual report for 2020, showing how much its joint chief executive officers were paid.
Blue Label joint-CEOs Mark and Brett Levy were paid a combined R26 million – taking home just under R13 million each.
The salaries comprise a basic salary of R9.7 million. In addition to the basic salary of R9.733 million each, the joint CEOs will receive R3.3 million each in line with the restraint of trade agreement that was concluded with them in November 2017.
The tenure of the restraint of trade undertaking is 36 months, which commenced on 1 November 2017 and will expire on 31 October 2020. This restraint has been extended by a further 12 months to 31 October 2021
After careful consideration, the board of Blue Label Telecoms said it has agreed to pay joint CEOs a restraining trade payment of R3.3 million each over the next 12 months commencing November 2020 on the proviso that they adhere to the original three-year restraint clause should their employment be terminated for whatever reason.
“These terms were incorporated in their renewed employment contracts. There are no contractual termination benefits in place for the Executive Directors.”
Also read: BLUE LABEL TELECOMS SHOWS RECOVERY SIGNS AFTER CELL C’S WRITE DOWN
Last month, Blue Label Telecoms reported tentative signs of recovery after writing down of Cell C, which was a drag on its financials.
As the carrying value of Blue Label’s investment in Cell C was fully impaired for the year ended May 2019, the financial results of Cell C did not have any impact on Blue Label’s earnings for the current year, the company informed investors. The comparative year reflected negative contributions to core headline earnings by Cell C of R2.6 billion.
Blue Label Telecoms disclosed that revenue fell 10% to R21.1 billion in the year to end-May 2020.
Headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased from a negative of 312.49 cents in 2019 to a positive of 58.16 cents per share in 2020. HEPS is South Africa’s main profit gauge.
Gross profit declined by 2% from R2.17 billion to R2.12 billion, partially limited due to an increase in margins from 9.21% to 10.05%.
“The Blue Label Telecoms Group has been successful in delivering on its back-to-basics strategy during the year ended 31 May 2020,” said joint CEOs.
“We have restructured the business to focus on core operations through the sale
of the Blue Label Mobile and 3G Handset divisions, discontinued the retail operations of WiConnect and impaired goodwill and loans where required.
“The core operations have performed well and demonstrated their resilience during the COVID-19 lockdown period with interest-bearing debt declining by R917 million to
end the financial year at R2.3 billion.
“Our balance sheet is now very healthy, given that EBITDA produced by the group was R1.2 billon on exclusion of extraneous costs and net cash generated by operations amounted to R1.3 billion.”
