THE chief executive of Edinburgh-based oil firm Capricorn Energy, Simon Thomson, has seen the value of his total remuneration rise by around a third in the latest year to £1.95 million, from £1.48m.
The annual report of Capricorn, which changed its name from Cairn Energy in December, shows the increase largely reflects the impact of a rise in the value of share awards that vested during 2021 to £0.8m, from £0.2m in 2020.
The reports notes that the number of awards that vested was based on the total shareholder return generated on investments in the company’s shares over the three-year performance period. This reflects movements in the share price and any dividends paid.
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“Capricorn’s TSR over the period placed it between the fourth and fifth highest ranked companies in the comparator group,” says the report.
It adds: “ After a careful consideration of a variety of factors, the [Remuneration] committee also concluded that there had been a sustained improvement in the overall performance of the Company over the three years in question [to March 27 2021].”
The company achieved success in the North Sea and overseas during the period.
Cairn paid $250m to investors in January last year following the $525m sale of its business in Senegal, which made a giant find off the country.
In December 2020 it was awarded $1.2bn by an international tribunal which found in its favour in respect of a long-running tax dispute in India. After settling for a $1.06bn payment, which it received in February, the group said it planned to pay up to $700m of the proceeds to investors.
The dispute concerned events leading up to the flotation of Cairn's former subsidiary in India in 2007.
In March last year the company agreed a deal worth an initial $455m to sell stakes in two big fields in the North Sea after generating big profits on the output from them. The same month it bought a portfolio of producing assets in Egypt from Shell for $323m.
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Firms operating in areas such as the North Sea have enjoyed a big boost to their profitability in recent months as a result of the sharp increases in oil and gas prices fuelled by the recovery from the pandemic. The fallout from the war in Ukraine stoked further increases in commodity prices.
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