Xero to ask shareholders to double board fees to add talent
The cloud-based accounting services company is asking shareholders to approve a doubling of the pool of fees for directors to add two board members and attract talent from offshore.
BUSINESSDESK: Xero, the cloud-based accounting services company, is asking shareholders to approve a doubling of the pool of fees for directors, saying it wants to add two board members and needs to attract talent from offshore.
The maximum aggregate remuneration would increase to $500,000 from $250,000, the level it has been at since June 2007, the Wellington-based company said in its notice for its annual meeting on July 26.
That will pay for two foreign directors, preferably in its growing Australian and US markets, and give it scope for a third if necessary.
“The Xero board is seeking to recruit two offshore people to join the board during 2012 and it is intended that these new directors will be paid at an appropriate market rate depending on their country of origin,” the statement from chairman Sam Knowles says.
The company abandoned its guidance of breaking even last year, saying it needed to chase revenue growth and market size.
Last month it posted a full-year loss of $7.9 million, while reporting that “annualised committed revenue” surged 82% to $25.5 million and customer numbers more than doubled. It warned of a bigger loss for the current year.
The bigger pool for directors' fees will let Xero lift the chairman's fee $20,000 to $80,000 and pay an additional $10,000 to the chairman of the audit and risk management committee. Non-executive directors' fees have been maintained at $40,000 since Xero listed in 2007.
The shares rose 2.4% to $4.78 in their last day of trading before joining the benchmark NZX 50 index on Monday. Some $6.8 million, or 1.3%, of the company's stock changed hands, the most this year.
The stock is rated "underperform" by the one analyst following it, according to Reuters data.
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Xero to ask shareholders to double board fees to add talent
21460