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* Soriot took home 15.45 mln stg - High Pay Centre report
* Experian CEO Cassin in second place with 10.3 mln stg
* Median FTSE 100 CEO pay down 17% in pandemic-hit year
By Simon Jessop
LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Pascal Soriot, the chief
executive of COVID-19 vaccine maker AstraZeneca, was
Britain's highest paid company boss in 2020, a year when the
average FTSE 100 leader saw their pay fall by almost a fifth, a
report on Thursday showed.
Soriot, whose handling of the pandemic response has drawn
criticism despite the company producing its vaccine at cost
price, took home 15.45 million pounds ($21.25 million), a report
from the High Pay Centre said.
That compares with median pay for CEOs in Britain's flagship
stock index of 2.69 million pounds, down from 3.25 million
pounds in 2019, the report found, but still 86 times the median
earnings for the average UK worker.
Shareholders had demanded bosses share the financial pain as
companies across a range of sectors experienced a tough year,
with lockdowns in many countries hitting sales.
The proportion of companies paying bonuses dropped to 64%
from 89% in 2019, while 77% paid out long-term incentives based
on performance over the previous 3-5 years, compared to 82% the
previous year.
Of the nine companies which took public money through the
British government's furlough scheme, the average CEO pay was
2.2 million pounds.
"CEO pay packages are designed to reflect the experience of
shareholders, employees and other stakeholders so in one sense
the lower pay levels this year show the system working as
intended," said High Pay Centre Director Luke Hildyard.
"On the other hand, these are still very generous
rewards...at a time when, in general, government support for the
economy has probably been more important to the survival and
success of the UK's biggest companies than the decisions of
their executives."
Rounding out the top five earners were Experian's Brian
Cassin, with 10.3 million pounds; CRH's Albert Manifold, with
9.92 million pounds; Reckitt Benckiser's Laxman Narasimhan, with
9.24 million pounds, and Berkeley's Rob Perrins, with 8.03
million pounds, the report said.
($1 = 0.7271 pounds)
(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
