Google CEO Pichai receives record US$199m stock grant

FEB 8, 201611:23 PM

[NEW YORK] Google Inc's Sundar Pichai is poised to become one of the highest-paid executives of a publicly traded company this year after parent Alphabet Inc awarded him restricted stock worth about US$199 million.

Pichai, who is Google's chief executive officer, received 273,328 Class C shares on Feb 3 that will vest in quarterly increments through 2019 if he remains on the job, according to a filing Friday from the Mountain View, California-based company.

Pichai, the former deputy of Google co-founder Larry Page, was named to run the search engine unit following the reorganization into holding company Alphabet last year. The award is the biggest ever given to a Google executive officer whose equity grants have to be reported in filings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It is Pichai's first award since taking over the company's highest-grossing unit.

Alphabet also awarded US$42.8 million in restricted stock to Diane Greene, a co-founder and former CEO of software maker VMware Inc, who's led Google's cloud business since November. Greene received equity worth US$148 million last year after Google acquired tech company Bebop Technologies Inc, which she founded.

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Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, who joined from Morgan Stanley last year, received equity worth US$38.3 million that will vest under the same conditions as Pichai's award, a filing shows.

An Alphabet spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google typically grants equity awards to executives once every two years, a strategy it has said "encourages executives to take a long-term view of the business."

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Chinese, Brazilian economies seen stabilising: OECD

FEB 8, 20167:14 PM

[PARIS] The Chinese and Brazilian economies are stabilising while advanced economies are seeing steady momentum, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Monday.

The Paris-based organisation said its December monthly composite leading indicators (CLIs), which are supposed to capture economic turning points, confirmed the "tentative signs of stabilisation" in China and Brazil seen in November.

While momentum was stable in the broader OECD, the indicators for the United States and Britain were suggesting easing growth with similar signals emerging in Canada and Japan.

"In the euro area as a whole, and in Germany and Italy, CLIs signal stable growth momentum while in France the outlook is for firming growth."

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Phones with seven-day battery life promised by fuel-cell maker

A British fuel-cell developer that was first to put the technology harnessing the power of hydrogen into London's distinctive black cab said it's working on a system that would allow mobile phone users to charge just once a week. 

PHOTO: INNERGIE

FEB 8, 20168:27 PM

[LONDON] A British fuel-cell developer that was first to put the technology harnessing the power of hydrogen into London's distinctive black cab said it's working on a system that would allow mobile phone users to charge just once a week.

Intelligent Energy Holdings Plc said an emerging smartphone maker will provide 5.25 million pounds (US$7.6 million) to develop a fuel cell small enough to be embedded in mobile phones.

The technology converts hydrogen into electricity, leaving only water vapor as a byproduct. It's spreading quickly at a bigger scale to drive commercial power generators used by businesses including the furniture retailer Ikea and investment bank Morgan Stanley to reduce emissions and ensure electricity supply.

"Embedding fuel-cell technology into portable devices provides a solution to the current dilemma of battery life," Julian Hughes, acting managing director for Intelligent Energy's Consumer Electronics division, said in a statement. "With consumers demanding more and more from their phones, battery innovation has not kept up." A fuel-cell powered phone could be on the market in two years if the partnership goes to plan, Henri Winland, chief executive of Intelligent Energy, said in an interview.

"The killer app is a battery with a seven-week refresh life and we think that will appeal to everyone. It's not just for intrepid explorers," Winland said.

Based in Loughborough in central England, Intelligent Energy has been researching energy technology for more than 25 years and has more than 1,000 patents. In addition to work on zero emissions taxis, it also worked with Boeing Co. on the first manned aircraft powered by fuel cells.

The contract with the unnamed smartphone maker will allow Intelligent Energy to further develop a prototype fuel cell phone announced last year. It says that unit is best suited to people living without access to a power grid, such as large parts of Africa.

Intelligent Energy has expanded beyond hydrogen-powered transport to develop stationary back-up systems to power telecom towers in India, and last month signed a letter of intent to develop hydrogen-powered drones.

"What we offer is a solution that is clean and efficient and means consumers could be truly mobile and free from the constraints of the grid," Hughes said.

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Credit Suisse CEO asks board to cut his bonus on quarterly loss

FEB 8, 201611:11 PM

[LONDON] Credit Suisse Group AG Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam asked the board to cut his bonus after Switzerland's second-largest bank reported its biggest quarterly loss in seven years.

Thiam told SonntagsZeitung in an interview published on Sunday that he "asked the board to substantially cut my bonus. Within the leadership team I am taking the biggest cut. I can't demand sacrifices from others and not make any myself." A spokesman at the Zurich-based lender confirmed the remarks, without elaborating on how much of a reduction Thiam asked for.

Credit Suisse shares are trading at a 25-year low and plunged Thursday, when the bank reported a fourth-quarter loss of 5.8 billion Swiss francs (US$5.8 billion). Thiam said that day that the lender would cut variable pay by 11 per cent, with bonus cuts of more than 30 per cent at divisions that "underperformed" in 2015.

Remuneration is a "battle ground," Thiam said at a conference last month, adding that investment bankers are unwilling to accept cuts to their compensation. Credit Suisse's bonus pool dropped to 3.27 billion francs for 2014 from 3.61 billion francs a year earlier.

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Thiam asked the board to cut his bonus by 25 per cent to 50 per cent, the Financial Times reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The bank is scheduled to disclose compensation figures in coming months.

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