Altron paid former Altech CEO Craig Venter R15 million in a "separation payment" when he left the company last year.
This is according to the JSE-listed IT organisation's 2016 Remuneration Report. Venter was only with the company for five months of the past financial year and for that time received base pay of R2.6 million.
When adding up his salary, incentives, bonuses and the separation payment, he walked away with R21.9 million. In 2014, his total package was R9.7 million.
Venter left Altech at the end of July 2015, after 27 years of service, and also stepped down as an Altron executive director but says he remains "actively engaged at Altron as a shareholder".
Altron says the factors taken into account when determining Venter's separation package included the number of years of service to the group. It also took into account "an equivalent severance package had he been dismissed based on operational requirements, and the need to include appropriate restraints on him competing against the Altron group in future".
It says Venter was not subject to any contractual restraint of trade but because of his long service and promotion from within the group, "the board deemed it prudent to include such an arrangement in his separation agreement".
Altron says the remaining senior executives are subject to a restraint of trade that prohibits them from taking employment with competing organisations for 24 months after leaving.
Venter decided to move into a different business market and last month launched ClickaBet, an online sports betting site.
Venter declined to comment to ITWeb on the "separation payment".
His hefty pay-out came despite the company reporting a loss of over R1 billion in total revenue for the year ended 29 February. It reported a full year headline loss per share of 145c, compared to headline earnings of 94c per share posted in the prior year.
The firm also decided not to pay shareholders a final dividend for the year because of "the difficult trading conditions" being experienced by the group and the company's "current level of debt".
"The main focus is to strengthen the financial position and to reduce debt," it said.
"Although, in line with prevailing practice in South Africa, the committee has the discretion to negotiate separation payments with executives, none of the senior executives of Altron have special termination benefits or balloon payment provisions in their employment contracts," the Remuneration Report reads.
Rob Abraham was not paid a separation payment when he retired from his role as CEO of Bytes Technology Group at the end of February, after 18 years of service. He did, however, walk away with R11.6 million in total for the year.
Venter joins the likes of former MTN CEO Sifiso Dabengwa, who was given R23.6 million for "compensation for loss of office" after he resigned in November 2015 amid the company's Nigerian fine scandal.
Keeping it in the family
Altron CEO, and Craig's brother, Robert Venter took home a total of almost R12.7 million for the financial year. Their father, Bill Venter, who founded Altron and still serves as non-executive chairman of the board, was paid R3.4 million for his role.
However, he will receive less next year after shareholder criticism that his remuneration was too high.
Altron says after management's engagement with shareholders in 2015, "it was reiterated that the Altron chairman's fee remains too high relative to the fees paid to chairmen of other comparable-sized companies and sectors".
It has now recommended that for the 12 months starting 1 September, the chairman's annual composite fee be reduced from R3.4 million per annum to R1.5 million. This is still subject to shareholder approval.
The Venter family still owns a 64% controlling stake in Altron but is busy "transitioning from a family-managed business to an independent management structure".
Altron told ITWeb last week it is busy with key projects relating to the repositioning of the group "as a focused, but smaller, ICT company". The key strategy is to focus on the core IT and telecoms businesses, and to significantly reduce its exposure to manufacturing.
The share price has seen a significant fall over the past few years. Altron's stock was worth around R26 in May 2014; a year later it was worth less than R14 and this morning the stock was worth R5.70 a share. This means the market cap has also fallen over 78% in two years, now sitting at just under R2.1 billion.
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