Victor Herrero, the outgoing CEO of Australian-born jewellery chain Lovisa, was the highest-paid chief executive in the ASX200 FY24.
This comes from newly released research by the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI), which called Lovisa’s top spot unusual as it wasn’t from someone in the ASX100 – or the top 100 companies listed on the ASX in terms of scale and market capitalisation.
In FY24, Herrero’s total realised pay was $39.5 million during the last financial year. This included a 1-year total shareholder return of 75.6 per cent.
“This was the first time since IDP Education’s Andrew Barkla in FY19 that a CEO from outside the ASX100 has topped the realised pay tables,” the ACSI report read.
The report added that Herrero’s realised pay for FY24 was higher than the realised pay of the next five highest-paid ASX101-200 CEOs for FY24 combined. This, according to ACSI, arose under the “headline-grabbing” incentive arrangement he was offered by the Lovisa board on joining the company in October 2021.
“The expensing of his potential reward under these arrangements was reflected in Herrero ranking first in the ASX101-200 for statutory pay in FY24 & FY23 (his reported pay of $29.09m in FY23 was second only to that of Macquarie Group’s Shemara Wikramanayake),” the report read.
“The highest paid CEOs below Herrero across the sample were a familiar group, with Macquarie’s Wikramanayake rising from second to first in the ASX100 for FY24 with realised pay of $29.76m (FY23: $21.74m), while the highest paid CEO in FY22 & FY23, Goodman Group’s Greg Goodman, fell to second in the ASX100 (and third overall) in FY24, with realised pay of $26.83m (FY23: $27.33m).”
However, Herrero was not the highest-paid CEO overall in Australia in FY24, with that honour going to New York-based Robert Thomson, the CEO of News Corporation, whose total remuneration was $41.8 million.
According to the report, US-based CEOs continue to feature heavily in the top 20 highest-paid CEOs on a realised pay basis.
While no other fashion-exclusive company CEO is listed in the top 20, Wesfarmers CEO Rob Scott did make the list, taking home $12.9 million. Wesfarmers is the overarching company that manages Kmart and Target department stores and the Workwear Group.
On a reported basis – which includes base salary and bonuses – Herrero’s pay for FY24 was $13.9 million. Reported pay does not include vested equity or other incentives.
According to ACSI, the median reported pay in the ASX101-200 sample rose 6.4 per cent to $2.39 million, which is the highest recorded in the 13 years of the ASX101-200 sample, surpassing the prior record of $2.27 million in FY22.
“The average fell 2.7 per cen from FY23’s record of $3.01m - a figure which included the bulk of the expensing of Lovisa CEO Victor Herrero’s incentive award that resulted in his record FY24 realised pay,” the report read. “His reported pay fell from $29.09m in FY23 to $13.97m in FY24, but that was still the highest in the ASX101-200 sample by some distance and the third highest in the whole ASX200.”
Herrero has recently stepped down from the CEO role at Lovisa, with former Smiggle managing director John Cheston taking the reins.