Fiat CEO's pay drops to $5 million in 2013

[March 12, 2014]  MILAN (Reuters) — Italian automaker Fiat <FIA.MI> paid Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne 3.6 million euros ($5 million) in cash last year, including a bonus and incentives, down from 4.5 million euros in 2012, the group's compensation report showed.

Under a separate stock incentive program, Marchionne was also granted the right to receive 2.3 million Fiat shares — worth around $25 million at current prices — but has yet to exercise that right, the company said. Marchionne already held 3 million Fiat shares at the end of 2013.

Fiat, which earlier this year took full control of its U.S. unit Chrysler, said Marchionne did not receive any monetary compensation for his role as CEO of Chrysler. However, he got benefits and stock awards worth $307,989 last year for heading the American carmaker, according to a filing with U.S. regulators by the company.

Marchionne has been CEO of both carmakers since Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 and will stay as the head of the merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) for at least the next three years. The 61-year-old did not use existing stock option plans during 2013.

Fiat reported a 2013 trading profit of 3.39 billion euros, down from 3.54 billion the previous year, primarily hit by a weaker performance in Latin America. It scrapped its dividend on 2013 earnings to preserve cash after taking control of Chrysler.

Marchionne is due to unveil a new industrial plan in May, including new models of its upscale Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Jeep brands the company will produce for exports to Asia and the Americas as it seeks to return to black in Europe, a market only slowly recovering from a six-year slump in auto sales.

In addition to Chrysler and Fiat, Marchionne was also paid 2.1 million euros for his role as executive chairman of tractor and trucks maker CNH Industrial <CNHI.MI> <CNHI.N>, born last year from the merger of Fiat Industrial and its CNH unit. Marchionne has the right to receive 366,667 CNH Industrial shares for 2013 under the company's stock incentive plan, but has yet to exercise that right, CNH said.

($1 = 0.7205 Euros)

(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

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