Pleased as Berkshire Hathaway might be with Apple management, some parties think enough is enough, and $99 million is too much for Apple’s CEO. The Financial Times says Norway’s $1.3 trillion oil fund, the “world’s largest sovereign wealth fund,” plans to vote against the $99 million in salary and bonuses proposed for Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Formally called the Government Pension Fund Global, the oil fund’s site says the country took the money made from oil fields found off the Norwegian coast in the late 1960s and started investing outside of Norway and outside of oil, to protect the country’s economy should the energy market go wibbly-wobbly. According to the site:
The fund is now one of the world’s largest funds, owning almost 1.5 percent of all shares in the world’s listed companies. This means that we have holdings in around 9,000 companies worldwide, entitling us to a small share of their profits each year.
According to the Financial Times:
The oil fund, which owned 1 per cent of Apple as of December 31 2020, justified its decision by saying a substantial part of annual pay should be provided in shares that are locked in for five to 10 years, and that the board “should provide transparency on total remuneration to avoid unacceptable outcomes”.
Norway’s oil fund is the second interested party to come out against Cook’s proposed compensation. In the middle of February, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), an Apple investor advisory group, urged its clients “to vote against Cook's pay and bonuses package.” That group says the amount in question “significantly exceed(s)” awards given by comparable companies. All of this comes ahead of a vote on compensation at Apple’s annual shareholders meeting. That’s scheduled for this Friday 4 March.