Citi awarded Pandit $37M signing bonus

Citigroup Inc. awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit nearly $40 million in salary and stock grants in 2008, a disastrous year in which the institution had to be rescued twice by the federal government and received $45 billion in bailout money.

Citigroup Inc. awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit nearly $40 million in salary and stock grants in 2008, a disastrous year in which the institution had to be rescued twice by the federal government and received $45 billion in bailout money.
The compensation, disclosed in Citi’s annual proxy statement filed Monday, helps show how Mr. Pandit can afford his pledge, made before a Congressional committee earlier this year, to work for $1 a year until his bank starts making money again.
The vast majority of Mr. Pandit’s compensation last year came in the form of stock granted in January 2008 as a “sign-on award” a month after he became CEO. The value of the shares at the grant date was $37 million, reflecting Citi’s stock price at the time, $24.40 a share. Since then, Citi’s share price has collapsed into penny-stock territory, and the shares given Mr. Pandit were worth only $1.8 million as of last Friday.
Mr. Pandit joined Citi after it acquired his hedge fund, Old Lane Partners, for $800 million in 2007. Mr. Pandit is said to have personally reaped $165 million from that sale.
In addition to his equity awards, Mr. Pandit was paid $958,000 in salary last year, according to the filing. He did not receive a cash bonus. He was paid $1.2 million in dividends on shares that haven’t yet vested. Citi says the value of Mr. Pandit’s total compensation last year was $10.8 million.
For the first time, shareholders will get a chance at Citi’s annual meeting on April 21 to vote on whether they deem Mr. Pandit’s pay appropriate. The bank had to include a say-on-pay proposal, under the terms of the federal bailout.