Former CEO earned most at NKT last year — despite leaving in May — EnergyWatch

There are obvious reasons why NKT’s labor costs rose last year. With 4,473 full-time employees, the busy cable manufacturer had about 10% more employees than the year before. In addition, the average salary increased, albeit not dramatically, by a good 1.9% to around DKK 565,500 (EUR 75,000).

Renumeration for top management also increased, perhaps predictably given the firm’s record year. However, the fact that this item increased by almost 15% to EUR 4.4m is mainly due to the change in the CEO position in May, when Alexander Kara resigned with one day’s notice and was replaced by Claus Westerlind.

The German-Swiss former CEO topped the list with a total salary package of just over EUR 1.6m — about a third more than his replacement and CFO Line Fandrup, who each received just over EUR 1.2m.

Kara’s salary itself was only just under DKK 2.5m (EUR 335,000) But even though, according to NKT’s announcement, he chose to leave the position himself, he received the equivalent of just over DKK 9.2m (EUR 1.2m) in severance pay.

NKT’s new CEO has nothing further to add, other than that it is not severance pay as such, but that the amount was part of Alexander Kara’s contract. The remuneration report also notes that the contract included ”a fixed bonus payment of EUR 500,000 in 2023”, but that Kara waived his share bonus in return.