Today’s Zain Annual General Meeting was held with much attention from investors, major shareholders, media members, parliament members, and the general public. The reason for the hype was that Zain’s Africa deal was being discussed, as well as the biggest dividend in Kuwait’s private sector history (KD 800 million) was going to be approved. There was speculation (proved to be correct) that the make up of the board of directors would change, as members of the Salem Al Ali and Ali Al Khalifa blocks were overthrown by Al Khrafi affliates, paving the way for the Zain Saudi deal.
Another major point that came up was the executive compenstation. Nabeel Bin Salamah was supposed to get a certain percentage of Zain’s profits, which equates to KD 27 million (Zain’s profit had an extra KD 2 bn due to the Africa sale). The bonus was reduced to KD 3.8 million, while 20 other managers received a total of KD 3 million, and the sum of KD 2.7 million went towards executive expenses. Even the reduced executive compensation amount seems absurd. Bin Salamah has been the CEO of Zain for a year now, meaning that the Zain Africa deal was being cooked before he joined the company. Even on an international level, such a compensation seems ridiculous. Wall Street executives are known to be the highest paid in the world, and Bin Salamah ranks up there with them.
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