Bloomberg – Morgan Stanley gave Chief Executive Officer John Mack the biggest bonus for the head of a Wall Street firm, awarding him $40 million as the company headed for the best profit in its71-year history.<\/p>\n
Mack, 62, was granted shares valued at $36.2 million as of Dec. 12, and about $4 million in options to buy Morgan Stanley shares, the company said yesterday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm also granted more than $57 million in bonuses for seven other top executives.<\/p>\n
The payout for Mack, 44 percent more than Morgan Stanley awarded him last year, eclipses the $38.3 million in total compensation Henry Paulson received in 2005 as CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Shares of Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest U.S. securities firm by market value, are having their best year since 2003 after Mack put the firm on course for record earnings.<\/p>\n
“You expect performance to be reflected in the compensation,” said Laura Thatcher, an Atlanta-based partner in charge of the executive-compensation practice at law firm Alston & Bird LLP. “You’re talking about staggeringly big companies with huge market caps and huge performance.”<\/p>\n
Shares of Morgan Stanley have gained 40 percent this year, outpacing the 16 percent advance by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The stock closed yesterday at $79.60, giving the company a market value of $84.2 billion. The firm may report next week that full-year profit rose 41 percent to $6.98 billion, the average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 10 analysts.<\/p>\n