South African CEO Mark Blair takes home $1.26 million, sees bump in earnings from Mr Price Group

Mr Price Group CEO Mark Blair has received R18.8 million ($1.26 million) in compensation from the leading retail group in the 2020-2021 financial year.

Mr Price Group Limited is a publicly traded retail company based in South Africa.

The leading retailer operates through a chain of 1,596 stores, with 1,467 stores in South Africa, while the remaining 129 stores are spread across nine African countries, including Botswana, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia.

Blair has been the CEO of the South Africa-based retailer since January 2019, when he was appointed after years of serving as the group’s CFO.

Figures contained in the group’s 2021 annual report revealed that the South African multimillionaire earned nearly 5-million rand ($328,000) more in a year marred by disruption and uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the period, Blair received a total guaranteed package of R7.7 million ($514,162), 8.3-percent lower than the total guaranteed package of R8.44 billion ($563,575) that he received in the previous year.

On the flip side, the short-term incentives of R10.93 million ($729,781) that Blair received pushed his total remuneration up to 18.8 million ($1.26 million), 35-percent higher than his total remuneration of R13.89 million ($927,431) last year.

Mr Price Group posted R2.65 billion ($177.06 million) in profits for its 2021 financial year, 2.6-percent lower than its profits of R2.73 billion ($182.46 million) during the previous financial year.

Under Blair, Mr Price’s total assets and liabilities have grown from R10.12 billion ($676.38 million) and R2.66 billion ($177.86 million) in 2018 to R19.88 billion ($1.33 billion) and R9.04 billion ($604.44 million) in 2021, respectively.

However, the asset and liability growth after additional debt funding has not translated to a substantial increase in revenues, profits and market capitalization.

Revenues and profits in 2018 were R21.35 billion ($1.43 billion) and R2.78 billion ($185.86 million), respectively, nearly the same as the revenues of R22.83 billion ($1.53 billion) and profits of R2.65 billion ($177.06 million), which it posted in 2021.