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EBS's Murphy got 300,000 pension bonus

EBS CHIEF executive Fergus Murphy got a "signing-up" payment of €300,000 into his pension scheme when he joined the building society in January 2008.

The payment was “a one-off special payment agreed as part of his recruitment as group chief executive”, according to the building society’s 2008 annual report, which was published yesterday.

Mr Murphy received the sum as part of a €394,579 payment to a defined contribution scheme by the building society.

He received a salary of €476,600 and benefits of €45,100, bringing his regular pay package, excluding the pension contribution, to €521,700 for 2008.

Alan Merriman, who resigned as finance director in March after the society made a loss of €38.2 million for 2008, received a total package of €479,700 for the year, down from €710,000 for 2007.

Another executive director, Tony Moroney, head of EBS broker subsidiary Haven Mortgages, was paid €308,000 for the year, down from €450,700.

Emer Finan, also an executive director of EBS, received a total pay package of €282,600, an increase from €232,800 in 2007. Ms Finan also received a pension contribution of €72,000.

Total executive pay fell to almost €1.6 million in 2008 from €1.8 million the previous year.

No bonuses or incentive payments were made to directors.

Bank of America’s chief Lewis ousted

Bank of America shareholders voted to oust chief executive Kenneth Lewis as chairman of the board after months of mounting criticism of his stewardship of the largest US bank.

The bank’s board “unanimously” expressed support for Mr Lewis to stay in the chief executive post despite the fact that shareholders “narrowly” approved a proposal to require an independent chairman.

Mr Lewis, who will remain chief executive, will be replaced in the chairman post by Walter Massey, a director of the banks board since 1998 and also a director of McDonalds. – (Reuters)

Share placing gets $40m for Petroceltic

Irish Oil and gas explorer Petroceltic has raised $40 million (€30.6 million) through a conditional placing with existing and new shareholders.

The company also reported a pretax loss of $3.69 million for the year ending December 31st and cash equivalents of $43.3 million. Revenues rose 75 per cent to $962,000.

Petroceltic has exploration permits in North Africa, the Po Valley in Italy, the central Adriatic and Sicily channel.

The company is planning to drill up to seven wells in Algeria.

Icon directors share $3.7m

The directors of Dublin-based clinical research company Icon shared remuneration of $3.7 million (€2.8 million) in 2008, compared to $3.3 million in 2007, according to the company’s annual report.

During the year, turnover increased by $234.5 million, or 37.2 per cent, to $865.2 million. Operating profit increased by $17.8 million, or 26.3 per cent, to $85.6 million. As a percentage of turnover, operating profit fell from 10.7 per cent in 2007 to 9.9 per cent in 2008.

Icon chairman Dr John Climax was paid €1.1 million, excluding share-based payments, while chief executive Peter Gray was paid €976,680.

Dunelm Mill to create 80 jobs

Furniture and fabric retailer Dunelm Mill is creating up to 80 jobs with the opening of a store in Derry. The firm, which has three stores in Northern Ireland, has announced it is opening a 11,000sq m outlet in the city.