The salaries of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) directors will rise, and the travel expenses of chairman Phillip Frost have been increased. The moves were approved at a Teva shareholders meeting today. Sources inform "Globes" that several dozen shareholders were present at the meeting, and that many of them expressed strong opposition to the motions on the agenda. However, Teva had the majority required to pass them, mainly thanks to investors, most of them not Israeli, who were not present at the meeting and cast proxy votes. Despite the objections, there were no shouts or commotion. Teva refused the request of those present to remove the motions from the agenda.
The motions were presented on behalf of Teva by Adv. Amir Elstein, scion of one of Teva's founding families, while Dr. Vered Shalev-Hurvitz, daughter of the late Eli Hurvitz, who was CEO and then chairman of the company in the period in which it rose to international prominence, was among the leading opponents.
The Teva board sought to raise directors' salaries from an average of about $76,000 a year to $190,000 ($16,000 monthly). This is in addition to $2,000 for each board meeting, which remains unchanged. Investors were also asked to raise the chairman's salary from $517,000 in 2011 to $900,000. Frost is entitled to reimbursement of travelling expenses of $700,000 for the use of his private plane, and shareholders were asked to approve additional expenses of $298,000 in respect of 2011, bringing the reimbursement to nearly $1 million.
In response Teva said, "Teva's shareholders today approved, with the required majority, all the proposed resolutions as recommended by the board of directors, including the re-appointment of Dr. Phillip Frost, Roger Abravanel and Erez Vigodman to the company's board of directors and the appointment of Professor Richard Alan Lerner and Galia Maor to the company's board of directors."
The company added, "More than 82% of the shares were represented at the annual general meeting by proxy voting or by physically attending the meeting. Teva welcomes the new officers and thanks its shareholders and those attending the meeting for their participation in the important process."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 12, 2012
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