Softbank’s Son Gives $83 Million Payday to Recruit Top Talent
While Son’s own salary remains modest by global standards, his company paid $83 million in pay to six lieutenants
(Bloomberg) -- Masayoshi Son is making top executives at SoftBank Group Corp. some of the highest-paid in Japan as he recruits talent to his growing investment empire.
While Son’s own salary remains modest by global standards, his company paid a total of 9.1 billion yen ($83 million) in compensation to six lieutenants, according documents released Wednesday for a shareholder meeting June 19. In the latest example, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive Katsunori Sago, 51, earned 982 million yen after becoming executive vice president and chief strategy officer in June 2018. The CEO of Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan’s biggest brokerage, made 405 million yen in the year ended March 2018.
Son has a history of paying top dollar to attract high-profile executives. Former SoftBank President Nikesh Arora earned 31.5 billion yen over his two-year tenure that ended in 2016, a compensation package that at the time rivaled those of Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook and Walt Disney Co.’s Bob Iger. Since then, Son’s hunt for global talent accelerated as he launched a $100 billion Vision Fund to invest in the world’s biggest technology companies. The fund’s headcount almost doubled last fiscal year to 297, according to the filing.
“The range of executive salaries in Japan has gone up, but compensation in the billions of yen is still unheard of beyond a handful of global companies,” said Noriko Watanabe, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search company. “But executive pay in the billions of yen doesn’t seem excessive when you consider the sheer scale of the Vision Fund” and its possible contribution to the bottom line.
Rajeev Misra, who heads the Vision Fund, earned 752 million yen, down from a year earlier. The fund has an unusual compensation structure that allows partners to share in the potentially enormous profits as well as possible losses. The scheme, which has not been made public yet, includes a $5 billion loan to employees.
SoftBank Group Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure made 1.8 billion yen, a 30% gain from a year ago. Claure, who also heads Sprint Corp. in the U.S., was named EVP in July. He also heads SoftBank’s $5 billion technology fund focused on Latin America.
Ronald Fisher, Son’s long-time lieutenant and SoftBank Group vice chairman, was the company’s highest-paid executive with 3.27 billion yen, 62% more than a year earlier. Son’s own salary increased 67% to 229 million yen. The billionaire controls a roughly 22% stake in SoftBank, which alone is worth about 2.5 trillion yen.
Ken Miyauchi, head of SoftBank’s domestic telecom operation, made 1.23 billion yen, while Simon Segars, head of its ARM Holdings Plc chip unit, earned 1.1 billion yen.
“You want to be seen as paying more than the previous employer, especially when you are scouting well-compensated finance professionals,” said Watanabe
To contact the reporters on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyev@bloomberg.net;Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net;Takashi Amano in Tokyo at tamano6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Peter Elstrom
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