General Motors Corp. Looses $2 Billion in 2006; Head Man Wagoner Earns $9.57 Million in 2006

DETROIT April 27, 2007; Tom Krisher writing for the AP reported that General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner received compensation that the company valued at $9.57 million during 2006, the struggling automaker disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Wagoner was paid $1,283,333 million in salary and received stock and option awards valued at $7,520,657 million on the date they were granted, GM's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

He also received $769,566 in other compensation, including $284,523 for home and personal security, $247,907 in life insurance benefits, and $51,941 for personal use of company aircraft.

According to the filing, Wagoner and the company's five other executive officers received no bonuses last year. Also, Wagoner took a 25 percent pay cut from Jan. 1, 2006 salary as part of the company's turnaround plan.

Company Vice Chairman for global product development Bob Lutz received $5 million in compensation, the filing showed. His 2006 salary was $1,162,500, a 15 percent cut. He received $445,679 in other compensation, including $214,159 in personal use of company aircraft. The fair value of stock and option awards to Lutz last year totaled $3,477,941 on the grant date.

The Associated Press calculates total pay including executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock and options awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits or the company's cost of stock and options granted before 2006, and the figures can differ from the company's total.

GM has been losing U.S. sales and market share in the face of fierce competition from Asian automakers. GM, like its U.S.-based rivals, was caught with a lineup featuring too many truck-based vehicles that weren't fuel efficient when gasoline prices surged to the $3 per gallon range.

The company lost $2 billion in 2006 and $10.4 billion in 2005, but analysts say there are signs that its turnaround plan is starting to work. The company posted a fourth-quarter profit of $950 million last year. It has shed thousands of manufacturing jobs and closed plants in an effort to reduce factory capacity.

Still, the company may lose its title of world's largest automaker to Toyota Motor Corp., which sold more vehicles worldwide than GM in the first quarter of this year. Wagoner has promised to fight to retain the lead.

GM's annual meeting is set for June 5 in Wilmington, Del. Several shareholders have submitted proposals to change the company's bylaws, including a request by the Community of the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, N.J., that GM set goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel efficiency.

"Our company is currently suffering financially in part because our competitors are making more compelling products that are both fuel efficient and low-pollution passenger cars, resulting in a recent alarming loss of market share in this era of higher oil prices," wrote the nuns, who own 75 shares.

In response to the proposal, GM's board said the company "has been working diligently" to reduce emissions and improve vehicle fuel economy. It said the company has reported its work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its proxy statement since 2003, and it did not believe providing another report would be "a good use of corporate resources."

Other proposals, all of which are opposed by the GM board, include:

-- Preventing board members from serving on more than two other boards of publicly traded companies.

-- Requiring a detailed reporting of political contributions made by the company.

-- Creating a policy in which 75 percent of future stock compensation given to senior executives would be performance-based.

Associated Press Writer Ken Thomas in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.