Some solace for shareholders in TECO executives' pay
By LOUIS HAU
Published March 29, 2004
Taking pleasure in another person's misfortune is not very nice. But given what they've been through during the past few years, the shareholders of TECO Energy Inc. might be forgiven for smiling at the following: none of the Tampa utility's top executives received pay raises or bonuses last year.
It's not hard to figure out why. TECO posted its first-ever annual net loss in 2003 - a whopping $909.4-million to be exact, swinging from a net profit of $330.1-million in the previous year.
Despite what amounted to a sharp reduction in their overall pay packages last year, TECO executives aren't exactly starving. For example, chairman and chief executive Robert Fagan drew a salary of $675,000, unchanged from the year before. According to TECO's annual proxy statement, Fagan also received restricted stock awards worth $798,268 and was granted options on 99,671 shares of TECO stock. Fagan's bonus-free 2003 followed a particularly lucrative 2002, when he received a bonus of $475,954 and exercised options on 117,315 shares for a gain of $804,611.
