Employees of investment firm Centum Investments of whom billionaire investor and entrepreneur Chris Kirubi is a major shareholder are smiling all the way to the bank. This is after they were awarded Sh. 11 million each as bonus payments for the past one year.
The company’s top 10 executives will on average take home a higher pay cheque of Sh34 million each. “The bonus is high because of the performance,” said Centum CEO James Mworia.
According to Centum Investment, the bonus is meant to balance the interest of shareholders and employees, who are driven to consistently match or beat the performance benchmark going forward for their cash entitlement to vest.
“It focuses the staff on performance. Everyone at Centum works like they are running their own business,” said Mr Mworia.
Centum says in its newly released annual report that the 142.6 per cent jump in bonus payment is attributable to the out-performance of pre-set annual benchmarks.
Centum’s board has set a target for the employees to raise shareholder funds or net assets by 15 per cent each year. The employees are entitled to 20 per cent of any return above the set benchmark, with the absolute payout also based on individual performance.
Centum’s net assets rose 39.1 per cent to Sh32 billion in the review period, beating the Sh26.4 billion target of based on the company’s performance criteria.
This created an excess of Sh5.5 billion in absolute terms, of which up to Sh1.1 billion was available for allocation to the staff.