Goldman chief gets $7m in stock for 2011

New York: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the fifth-biggest US bank by assets, gave Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein a $7 million (Dh25.7 million) restricted-stock bonus for 2011, a decrease from $12.6 million a year earlier.

Blankfein received 61,702 shares on February 1, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The stock closed at $113.45 in New York that day. Goldman Sachs raised Blankfein's salary to $2 million last year from $600,000.

Goldman Sachs's 2011 earnings dropped 47 per cent to the lowest level since 2008 on a second consecutive annual decline in fixed-income trading revenue. The New York-based firm reduced compensation 21 per cent and eliminated 2,400 jobs. The stock fell 46 per cent in 2011, more than the 18 per cent drop in the S&P 500 Financials Index.

Chief Financial Officer David Viniar, President Gary Cohn and Vice Chairmen J. Michael Evans and John S. Weinberg each also received 61,702 restricted shares, according to separate filings issued on Friday. Base salaries for those four executives jumped last year to $1.85 million each from $600,000.

Cash bonus

The filings don't include how much any of the executives have been awarded in cash bonuses. Blankfein received a $5.4 million cash bonus for 2010, his first since getting about $27 million in cash bonuses for each of 2007 and 2006.

The company won approval from 73 per cent of shareholders for its compensation plan at the last annual meeting in May, down from 96 per cent a year earlier.