Earlier in the year, before Russia started its war on Ukraine, the shares would have been worth $1.7 million, but since the invasion in February the price on Nasdaq has dropped to just 44ȼ.
Amsterdam-based Veon, most of whose business comes from Russia and Ukraine, said: “The shares were awarded as part of Veon’s deferred share plan. This award represents a further step in aligning the executive team’s remuneration with the successful implementation of our digital operator strategy and long-term value creation for our shareholders.”
The two executives are CEO Kaan Terzioğlu (pictured) – who will be interviewed in Capacity in the next issue – and CFO Serkan Okandan.
For Okandan, a former Etisalat CFO who moved to Veon two years ago, this is his first share award. He now has 222,172 Veon shares. But it is a substantial award to Terzioğlu, who now has 1,674,900 shares.
Veon said that its executive committee members will over time accrue and then maintain a minimum level of shares. This will be equivalent to six times the annual base salary for the group CEO and double the annual base salary for other members.
The group has been hard hit by Russia’s war. Its Russian subsidiary VimpelCom accounts for 52% of the group’s business. Its Kyivstar operation in Ukraine accounts for another 13%.
The management team has reacted to the war by moving loans, from Sberbank and Alfa Bank, both of which are sanctioned, from the group to VimpelCom in Russia.
It said in May that its total cash and deposits had increased to approximately $2.4 billion, including $1.8 billion in cash and deposits held by its headquarters in Amsterdam, in both dollars and euros.
Outside Russia and Ukraine, the rest of the company’s businesses are in Algeria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
