AIG CEO to get token $1 salary

CHARLOTTE: American International Group Inc. said Tuesday it is limiting how much it pays its top executives, including granting a $1 salary for this year and the same for 2009 to its Chief Executive Edward Liddy. The decision is one of many broader moves made by the troubled New York-based insurer, which has been under pressure to restrict executive pay since accepting billions in government assistance to save it from collapse. AIG has received about $150 billion so far, more than any other company. It was once the world’s largest insurer with customers around the globe, and regulators feared the possible effect an AIG collapse would have had on the world’s financial system. The company said there will be no 2008 annual bonuses and no salary increases through 2009 for AIG's top seven officers and no salary increases through 2009 for the 50 next-highest AIG executives. In addition to his $1 a year salary, Liddy will be getting an unspecified amount of stock. “We believe these actions demonstrate that we are focused on overcoming our financial challenges so AIG can return value to taxpayers and shareholders,” Liddy said. — AP

Porsche pushes back VW takeover

STUTTGART: German luxury sports car maker Porsche said Wednesday it would push back a planned takeover of Volkswagen, the biggest European auto group, after being hit by falling sales. “In view of the current economic climate it is more and more unlikely that we will achieve the goal this year” of raising its stake in VW from the current 42.6 per cent to more than half, Porsche chief Wendelin Wiedeking said. “Our aim remains to increase our stake to over 50 per cent... as quickly as possible. But we have always said that we would not do anything unreasonable,” he told a news conference in southwestern Stuttgart. Wiedeking said his goal was to build “a global alliance” able to resist the financial and economic crisis, “because the world is not going to be simple.” “In the past weeks, dramatic changes have taken place in auto markets,” he noted. Porsche estimated that its unit sales had dropped by 18 percent to 25,200 vehicles in the August-November period compared with the same period a year earlier. Revenues were also expected to have lost 15 per cent in the same period. — AFP

... contd.