LEXMARK EXEC'S PAY AT ISSUE AGAIN FOR SHAREHOLDERS

[Anonymous]

http://www.kentucky.com/103/story/767108.html
Lexmark exec’s pay at issue again for shareholders
This
year’s annual shareholder meeting for printer maker Lexmark
International might seem familiar.Sixty percent of stockholders
approved a measure last year that sought to give them a non-binding
vote on executive pay.

It’s back again.
Lexmark
executives said the company took “meaningful actions” in 2008 but did
not agree to adopt the proposal, which will again be discussed at the
meeting that will be held at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Embassy Suites on
Newtown Pike.The company argues that the vote would place Lexmark at a
“competitive disadvantage” because rival firms wouldn’t be subject to
such a non-binding vote.Also, Lexmark said that in the past year it
surveyed shareholders that hold more than 60 percent of its stock and
also had one-on-one conference calls with the largest shareholders to
discuss compensation practices.An investment fund associated with
Amalgamated Bank, which bills itself as “America’s Labor Bank,” has
made the proposal both times, saying the vote “gives shareholders a
clear voice that could help shape senior executive
compensation.”Lexmark, though, says there would not be “any clear
indication of the meaning of (the) vote.”

Thursday’s vote comes
as compensation for Lexmark’s top executive continues to fall.Chief
Executive Paul Curlander saw his total compensation fall from $8.18
million in 2007 to $4.25 million in 2008, driven by a more than $3
million decline in the value of his stock option awards.Curlander’s
compensation might well drop further next year. Earlier this year, he
asked the board not to award him a stock-based long-term incentive
award in 2009 as a way to “control costs during this current economic
downturn.”

[Author]

May 11, 2009 at 11:33 AM