PCCW's chairman Richard Li Tzar-kai, who showed up at the company's shareholders' meeting yesterday for the first time in more than two years, said management remunerations were reasonable because of the competitive market.
Mr Li said the company's directors and management were receiving pay packages that 'were not too low' but were well justified by their hard work.
'Yes, their salaries are not low but competition in this city is so immense that I think their salaries are all justified,' Mr Li said at the meeting in which more than 250 independent shareholders attended.
PCCW, which employs some 14,000 workers, paid $15 million in salary and allowances last year to managing director and deputy chairman Jack So Chak-kwong before other bonuses and $11.48 million to executive chief financial officer and executive director Alex Arena. Mr So recently renewed his contract with PCCW for three more years and market watchers expected him to have received a handsome raise.
Mr Li was paid $4.29 million last year plus accommodation, according to PCCW's annual report.
By comparison, Telstra Corp, Australia's dominant telecommunications player which also runs fixed-line and mobile businesses, paid its former chief executive Ziggy Switkowski A$1.83 million ($10.71 million) basic salary for the past year to June before other performance-linked incentives.