Smurfit contribution won't help Kane

What have Jefferson Smurfit and Eircom got in common? Not a lot, one might say; one is involved in making cardboard boxes and the other is a telecom company. But one thing they have in common is directors getting fat bonuses for God-knows-what, while shareholders have seen the value of their investments shrink. So, it was not any great surprise to see the great cardboard box man (and former Telecom Eireann chairman) Michael Smurfit spring to Alfie Kane's defence and blame the current row over Kane's pay package on journalists getting their "jollies off". Current Account is not up to speed on that particular term, but must assume it isn't a positive one.

Remember, Dr Smurfit is the man who picked up £4 million (€5.08 million) in a long-term incentive payment last year, while Smurfit's share price went belly-up.

While Dr Smurfit and his boardroom colleagues have been exceptionally well-rewarded over the past years for their efforts, the unfortunate fact for shareholders is that Smurfit's share price this week is less than 60 per cent of its high two years ago.

About 10 years ago, Smurfit reached a landmark when it became the first Irish company to be valued at over £1 billion, and was unchallenged as Ireland's biggest public company. Ten years on, Smurfit is worth around £1.9 billion and is just about holding a position in the Irish top 10 plcs.

To make things worse, Smurfit's share price this week is the same as it was 10 years ago! And how has Smurfit performed relative to the rest of the market. It is down 33 per cent so far this year, down 50 per cent over three years, and down more than 60 per cent over five years. Is that the sort of performance that warrants long-term incentive payments?

Alfie Kane can at least point to the fact that he played a major role in what was a successful flotation for Eircom's former owners, the State, whatever about the unfortunate shareholders who bought the company's shares last year.

But Michael Smurfit tells us that the row over Alfie's pay package is "very sad, very sad". Alfie, he told the Sunday Tribune, was totally underpaid. "It's an international business and should have international pay for international performance."

Pardon me, but where is Eircom's international business, apart from a toehold in the Northern Ireland market? Where is the international performance from Alfie Kane and Malcolm Fallen that justifies their pay packages?

And to make matters worse, Dr Smurfit's interpretation of the Eircom pay row is to suggest that it's all something of a media plot. "It is primarily among newspaper people. I mean you guys love stories of controversy; it's how you get your jollies off," he said.

I suppose when somebody lives in tax-exile splendour in Monaco, he mightn't have his finger on the pulse of public opinion in his homeland. But for Michael Smurfit to suggest that the row over Alfie Kane's pay packet has been stoked up by the media is to show that he is out of touch with what is actually going on.

Alfie Kane is going to have a tough enough time at the Eircom annual general meeting the week after next. Public support from another chief executive whose pay packet seems to rise in inverse proportion to his company's share price isn't going to make that a.g.m. any easier.