Lakshmi Mittal's salary in 2012 almost flat at $1.77 mn

The salary of Lakshmi Mittal, Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, inched up a mere 1.78% at USD 1.77 million last year, amid the world's largest steelmaker reporting a net loss of USD 3.73 billion in 2012 due to slump in demand and write downs.

Mittal took a 6.41 per cent cut in short-term performance related bonus in 2012 at USD 1.94 million in the backdrop of recession in Europe hurting ArcelorMittal's performance last year, the company's annual report showed.

Mittal's salary in 2011 was USD 1.739 million, while his short-term performance related bonus was USD 2.074 million.

The company's several other Board members also went for cuts in their pay cheques in 2012 due to poor performance of the company.

This includes Mittal's daughter Vanisha Mittal Bhatia, who went for a 1.15% cut in her compensation at USD 1,72,000.

The report, however, did not mention the compensation given to Mittal's son and company's CFO Aditya Mittal as he is not a Board member.

Lakshmi Mittal, along with his wife Usha Mittal holds 39.39% stake in ArcelorMittal.

In 2012, the largest steel producer of the world had reported a net loss of USD 3.73 billion due to poor market conditions, particularly in Europe, where it had to idle several plants.

This had led to company's operating profit (EBITDA) and sales declining by 30% and 10.40%, respectively.

The company had already proposed to reduce the dividend for 2013 by about 74% to USD 0.20 per share against USD 0.75 per share in 2012.

Lakshmi Mittal, whose annual compensation has risen from USD 1.65 million in 2010, is the highest paid member of ArcelorMittal's Board, the report showed.

His pay cheque was way ahead of the second best paid Lewis B Kaden, the lead independent director, who received USD 262,000 in compensation in 2012.

Narayanan Vaghul was the third highest paid board member of ArcelorMittal, with a compensation of USD 218,000.

Cost cutting by the company was also evident on total compensation paid in 2012 to members of ArcelorMittal's senior management (including Lakshmi Mittal in his capacity as CEO), where it went for nearly 41% cut at USD 9.6 million in base salaries.

This also included certain other allowances paid in cash, such as allowances relating to car, petrol, lunch and financial services, the annual report said.

Further, ArcelorMittal pruned costs on short-term performance-related variable pay, consisting of a bonus linked to 2011 results by about 64% at USD 10.5 million and reduced pension bill by 47% to USD 0.8 million.