What are Samruk Kazyna board members paid?

The remuneration of the members of the Board of JSC Samruk Kazyna totaled at 345.5 million ($1.9 million at 1 USD = 185 KZT) in 2014, a Tengrinews correspondent reports. The information was published on the website of the Kazakh stock exchange KASE.

The rules of the National Bank prescribe all joint stock companies to disclose the total amount of remuneration together with the annual financial statements every year. The reporting year in this case is 2014.

"JSC National Welfare Fund Samruk Kazyna (Astana), whose stocks are officially listed on the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), has informed KASE in an official letter of the total remuneration of the members of the executive body for 2014 in the amount of 345,468,000 KZT," the statement on KASE website said.

The board of directors of Samruk Kazyna consists of six people: Chairman Umirzak Shukeyev, his deputies Yelena Bakhmutova and Dauren Yerdebay, CFO Rakhmetov Nurlan, Chief of Legal Affairs Talgat Sarsenbayev and Director of Business Development Berik Beisengaliyev.

Samruk-Kazyna, officially known as the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna, is a sovereign wealth fund and joint stock company in Kazakhstan which owns, either in whole or in part, many important companies in the country, including the national railways operators Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, postal service KazPost, state oil and gas company KazMunayGas, state uranium company Kazatomprom, Air Astana airlines, and numerous financial groups. The state is the sole shareholder of the fund.

The news of their considerable payments did not pass without stirring some controversy among the Kazakhstani population, so Samruk Kazyna had to do some explaining.

"The number 345.5 million tenge - is the total remuneration received by board members of the fund in 2014. It includes both salary and annual bonuses. In this case, the annual bonus obtained in 2014 is the bonus accrued in 2013. The bonuses include the salary, individual income tax and the amount of deductions. So, if one removes the wage, the income tax and the deductions, the total annual bonuses for 2013 amounts to 185.5 million tenge ($1 million at 1 USD = 185 KZT). Given the fact that there are six people in the Board, the average annual bonus of top management equals 31 million tenge ($168 thousand at 1 USD = 185 KZT)," CFO Nurlan Rakhmetov said.

He explained that the salaries and the bonus system was originally established by the government and have not changed since 2011. Bonuses for the year are paid only at the decision of the Board of Directors and do not exceed three annual salaries.

Rakhmetov added that members of the board may waive their annual bonus, which, in fact, is done each year by the chairman of the board Umirzak Shukeyev.

In addition, Rakhmetov believes that the size of the bonuses was quite appropriate given the financial performance of the Fund in 2013.

"In 2013, the consolidated net profit to the shareholders, excluding the second-tier banks amounted to 654 billion tenge. This is the highest profit in the history of Samruk Kazyna. When comparing the total annual bonus to this amount, the ratio is 0.03 percent. The total volume of enhanced dividends directed to the sole shareholder amounted to 157 billion tenge, or 24 percent of the profits, and was transferred to the government," Rakhmetov said.

He stressed that bonuses were not paid automatically but were assessed based on individual efficiency of the top managers.

"For some reason no one analyzes remunerations paid to top managers of large companies that also publish information on KASE and on their websites. Believe me, remunerations there are much higher and the amount of assets is much lower than in Samruk Kazyna,” he said.

Moreover, he contended that in order to have good performance by qualified specialists it is advisable to give appropriate financial stimuli. “The market of human resources is a market, in which people work where they are paid more,” he stressed.

By Dinara Urazova, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina