Merrill CFO gets $2.5M signing bonus

Merrill Lynch’s new chief financial officer, Nelson Chai, will receive a bonus of $2.5 million.

That was quick. Merrill Lynch’s new chief financial officer, Nelson Chai, will receive a bonus of $2.5 million, split equally between cash and stock, for fiscal year 2007, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Crain’s Financial Week.
Mr. Chai, 42, takes over Merrill’s top finance position today. The bonus is to compensate him for the bonus he forfeited by leaving his previous job as CFO of NYSE Euronext to join the bank.
In addition to the bonus, Mr. Chai will receive compensation for the forfeiture of unvested equity awards he was granted at NYSE, including stock options and restricted stock.
He will also receive a sign-on equity award of 270,000 Merrill stock options, two-thirds of which are subject to performance vesting requirements, and 90,000 shares of restricted stock.
Mr. Chai, who followed his NYSE boss John Thain to Merrill, will earn an annual salary of $600,000. He received total compensation of $2.17 million in 2006, according to NYSE’s proxy statement.
Mr. Chai’s compensation at Merrill pales in comparison to that of his predecessor. Former CFO Jeffrey Edwards received total compensation of $14.7 million in 2006, including a cash bonus of $5.6 million and a stock grant of $8.2 million.
Mr. Edwards has been reassigned to a new position for which his duties have yet to be disclosed.