JustKapital slashes exec salaries after questions from shareholders

Litigation funder JustKapital has responded to shareholder criticism of executive pay by cutting salaries before its annual general meeting.

In a statement released after the market closed, JustKapital (ASX:JKL) announced it would cut chairman and managing director Philip Kapp’s salary by 35 per cent, from $775,000 to $500,000, as of the start of October.

CFO and COO Dianne Jones will see her salary cut from $525,000 to $400,000.

The company said it was doing so “to address concerns from shareholders regarding executive remuneration packages”.

Kapp and Jones will be entitled to short term performance bonuses, but take two-thirds of those as shares at 21c each, escrowed until 31 December, 2018.

The company’s shares closed Monday at 16c.

According to its annual report, founder Kapp was supposed to be paid a total package of $1.2 million in share-based payments, bonuses, salary and fees in 2017. This was up from $978,500 the previous year.

Jones was expecting a total of just over $1 million, up from $245,564 last year.

In 2017, directors Tim Storey and Mike Hill made just over $187,000.

This year Kapp and Jones engineered a takeover of US health funder National Health Fund, which closed last week for $85 million.

It’s an acquisition that they say will turn JustKapital into a global litigation financier and is an entree into the $11 billion US health litigation sector.