Executive pay still rising sharply: The average CEO salary at a Tel Aviv 100 company rose 14% in 2009. [Globes, Tel Aviv, Israel]

Mar. 25--The total salary cost of all the senior managers of the companies on the Tel Aviv 100 list was NIS 1.04 billion last year, a "Globes" investigation has found.

The Tel Aviv 100 list includes only 75 companies that report on senior managers' salaries. The companies that do not are dual-listed companies, and oil exploration partnerships, which do not pay salaries. So far, 54 of the 75 companies (72 percent) have released their financials.

It can therefore be assumed that the total salary cost of all the 75 companies is close to $1.5 billion, continuing the rapid growth in executive pay seen in 2008.

Most companies provide salary details for only five senior managers, but there are companies in which the list of senior executive salary earners is longer.

The average CEO salary at a Tel Aviv 100 company was NIS 6.09 million annually (NIS 508,000 a month) in 2009. This represents a rise of 14 percent over 2008. In the past seven years, the average salary of the CEO of a company on the Tel Aviv 100 list has risen 85 percent. The average salary of the CEO of a company on the Tel Aviv 25 list was NIS 8.82 million annually (NIS 735,000 a month) in 2009.

The highest salary earner in 2009 was Gazit-Globe (TASE: GLOB) chairman Chaim Katzman, whose monthly salary cost was NIS 1.566 million. He is followed by Mizrahi Tefahot Bank (TASE:MZTF) CEO Eli Yones (NIS 1.552 million), Israel Phoenix Assurance (TASE: PHOE1;PHOE5) and Delek Israel CEO Eyal Lapidot (NIS 1.488 million), former Gazit-Globe CEO Michael Bar-Haim (NIS 1.353 million), Clal Finance Batucha Brokerage CEO. Ronen Waisserberg (NIS 1.311 million), Delek Israel CEO David Kaminitz (NIS 1.285 million), Equity One CEO Jeffery Olson (NIS 1.202 million), Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) CEO Akiva Mozes (NIS 1.065 million), Bezeq (TASE: BZEQ) chairman Shlomo Rodav (NIS 0.978 million), and Bank Hapoalim (LSE: BKHD; TASE: POLI) CEO Zion Kenan (NIS 0.977 million).

According to calculations by "Globes", Akiva Mozes has amassed some NIS 211 million in his eleven years as CEO of Israel Chemicals. He has turned the company into a cash cow for Israel Corp. (TASE: ILCO), with a market cap of NIS 64 billion, second only to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

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