Hong Kong Bourse Offers Record Base Salary to New CEO

Nicolas Aguzin, the new chief executive of the company that runs the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, will get the highest ever base salary it has paid to its head since listing in 2000, publicly available data show.

The 52-year-old financial industry veteran joined Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. (HKEX) on Monday, with a base annual salary of HK$10 million ($1.29 million) during his tenure through May 2024, according to a company filing released last week.

A former CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s International Private Bank, Aguzin is HKEX’s fourth CEO and first of non-Chinese origin since the compant went public. His base annual salary will be higher than that of his predecessor, Charles Li, whose base annual salary ranged from HK$7.2 million to HK$9.3 million in the 2010-to-2020 period, as well as those of two previous CEOs, according to public data.

Aguzin’s $1.29 million salary is around the same level as those of some of his counterparts in major international stock exchanges. For example, Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the company that runs the New York Stock Exchange, received $1.05 million in base salary in 2020.

Base salary is probably only a small part of Aguzin’s total compensation. He will be able to receive other benefits including performance-related discretionary bonus and share awards. He will get more than 211,000 HKEX shares in two installments “as compensation for loss of unvested long-term incentives earned through his service with his previous employer,” according to the filing. Based on the company’s Thursday closing share price of HK$483 apiece, the value of those shares is about HK$102 million.

“This compensation package is determined having given consideration to the level of responsibility, experience and abilities required of the Chief Executive and the remuneration offered for similar positions in the global financial industry,” HKEX said in the filing.

An important part of Asia’s financial infrastructure, HKEX will continue to play a critical role in promoting interconnections between global financial markets, Aguzin said at a seminar in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Hong Kong is still a competitive and attractive global financial center, with an open and transparent international market, solid infrastructure, internationally recognized rule-of-law, and free flow of information and funds, he noted.

Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com)

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