Apollo Communications CEO Adam Connolly said that by ranking the market capitalisation of all 100 ASX-listed companies, the report examines which Boards and which industries are paid more or less than their market size dictates.

”When Board remuneration is ranked against company size, the top 10 best value boards in Australia are CSL, Newcrest Mining, Magellan Fin Group Limited, Coles Group, GPT Group, Afterpay Touch, Xero Limited, Sydney Airport, the a2 Milk Company and Sonic Healthcare,” Mr Connolly said.

“In contrast, the top 10 highest remuneration-to-market-cap ratio boards in Australia are Virgin Money UK, AMP, Resmed, Bank of Queensland, Link Group, Star Entertainment Group, Soul Pattinson, Worley Parsons, James Hardie and Challenger.

“In some cases, individuals sit on four ASX-listed Boards simultaneously, while others have served for up to 45 years on one board, when contemporary governance guidelines suggest the maximum tenure should be no more than nine years.

“One interesting outcome of Australia’s economic engagement with the world is the rise of the Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) Board Director, with one in five of Australia’s ASX-100 Directors living offshore, and either phoning in for Board discussions or attending in person.

“In a world physically shut down by the Coronavirus, telecommuting for Board directors could become common place.”

Australia’s 100 largest ASX-listed companies are worth a collective $1.7 trillion, employ up to three million workers, and are the engine room of the Australian economy, helping drive economic growth, and in some cases social change.

Mr Connolly said although the 563 Non-Executive Directors are well-paid at a collective $176 million a year, they put their own personal reputations on the line by agreeing to serve on our nation’s largest boards, and also expose themselves to potential financial liability if things go wrong.

“Non-Executive Directors are paid just 0.01 per cent annually of the market capitalisation of the ASX-companies they oversee, suggesting they provide fair value for the responsibility they take on,” he said.

KEY FINDINGS:

•  HIGH LEVEL FINDINGS – Australia’s ‘563-club’ of professional directors is paid a collective $176 million a year, or $1.76 million per company on average. These annual Board fees represent 0.01% of the overall market value of the companies they oversee, suggesting they provide good value for money. Australia’s top 100 ASX-listed companies are worth a collective $1.7 trillion, or $17.3 billion each on average, and come from 19 distinct industry ‘sectors’.
• BEST PAYING BOARDS – The best paying Boards in Australia are not necessarily the largest. They are BHP (3rd by market cap), Resmed (51st by market cap), Macquarie (7th by market cap), Rio Tinto (12th by market cap) and NAB (5th by market cap).
• HIGHEST PAID BOARD DIRECTORS – Gordon Cairns is Australia’s best paid Non-Executive Board director with earnings of $1.8 million from Directorships on Woolworths, Origin Energy and Macquarie, followed by Lindsay Maxsted ($1.6 million) from his service with Westpac, Transurban and BHP. Although Mike Wilkins earned $2 million through his directorships with AMP, QBE and Medibank, this was distorted by his short-term tenure as Acting AMP CEO.
• BEST PAID SINGLE BOARD SEATS – The three highest paid single board directorships are Rio Tinto (Simon Thompson $1,601,760), AMP (Mike Wilkins at $1,516,000) and BHP (Ken MacKenzie at $1,331,520). Ironically, while BHP is Australia’s third largest company in Australia, neither AMP or Rio ranks in the top 10, raising questions about why their Chairmanships are so lucrative compared to larger companies.
• DIRECTOR PAY GAP – Despite corporate Australia being a public supporter of gender equality, male directors earn 20% on average more than their female colleagues ($263,144 vs $218,696), for no obvious reason. The ‘director pay gap’ narrows at the Chair level, with male Chairs earning 14.7% more than female Chairs on average ($502,516 versus $437,990).
• BEST VALUE BOARDS – Global biotech company, CSL, and gold miner, Newcrest Mining, provide the best value Boards in Australia. At $116 billion in market capitalisation, CSL is ranked second largest by size among Australia’s top 100 ASX-listed companies, yet 52nd in terms of Board fees paid, at $1.69 million. Newcrest Mining has a market capitalisation of $24 billion, ranking it 16th  by size but 66th in terms of Board fees paid. The next best value boards are Magellan Fin Group Limited, Coles Group, GPT Group, Afterpay Touch, Xero Limited, Sydney Airport, The a2 Milk Company and Sonic Healthcare, when Board remuneration is ranked against company size.
• HIGHEST REMUNERATION-TO-MARKET-CAP RATIO  – The 10 highest remuneration-to-market-cap ratio boards in Australia are Virgin Money UK, AMP, Resmed, Bank of Queensland, Link Group, Star Entertainment Group, Soul Pattinson, Worley Parsons, James Hardie and Challenger when their company size is ranked against what their Non-Executive Directors are paid.
• TENURE – Ramsay Health Care’s Michael Siddle is Australia’s longest serving Board director at 45 years, five times the 9-year limit set by the UK Corporate Governance Code. Three other Ramsay directors also made the Top 10 list; Peter Evans (29 years), Kerry Roxburgh (22 years and 4 months) and Rod McGeoch (22 years and 4 months). The only female is JB Hi-Fi’s Beth Laughton, having served 18 years and 5 months.
• BEST VALUE INDUSTRIES – Six of the 19 ASX listed industries pay their Boards less than their market size dictate. They are Pharmaceutical companies, Food and Staples Retailing, Telecommunications Services, Retailing, Banks and Transportation companies.
• LEAST VALUE INDUSTRIES – In comparison, 13 of Australia’s 19 industry sectors pay their Boards more than their market size would dictate. They are Commercial & Professional services, Utilities, Food Beverage & Tobacco, Health Care Equipment & Services, Media & Entertainment, Diversified Financials, Insurance, Consumer Services, Software & Services, Energy, Materials (Mining and Resources), Real Estate, Energy and Capital Goods.
• AGE – The oldest ASX-100 Board Director is Crown Resorts’ Geoff Dixon at 80 and the youngest TPG Telecom’s Shane Teoh at 33. Following the retirement of Geoff Dixon from the board of Crown Resorts (announced just prior to this report being written), the oldest became Goodman Group’s Ian Ferrier at 79. The median age is 60, meaning the tail-end of the Baby Boomer generation retains oversight of our corporate institutions.
• UNIVERSITIES – Perhaps surprisingly, the generalist Bachelor of Arts is the most common degree for professional Non-Executive Directors, compared to a Bachelor of Science for CEOs. The University of Sydney is the ‘Directors Club’, educating more ASX-100 Board members than any other, followed by the University of Melbourne. This compares to the University of NSW, which has educated more senior CEOs than any other, making it the ‘Power University’.

The ASX-100 Board of Directors Report 2020 complements the Apollo Communications Australian Top 50 CEO Report 2019. 

About Apollo Communications

Apollo Communications provides strategic advice to Australian and international Boards and their management teams on how to protect and promote their corporate reputations. 

To purchase a copy of the Apollo Communications ASX-100 Board of Directors Report , click here.

Media enquiries: Adam Connolly 0417 170 084 or Irina Kamychnikova 0426 221 550