French pharmaceuticals group Sanofi came under fire from French government ministers on Monday over a welcome bonus planned for its new CEO, reports Business Insider.
Sanofi's new boss, Olivier Brandicourt could pocket a one-off golden handshake of 4 million euros ($4.5 million) in addition to making 4.2 million euros a year.
Government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll blasted the package for the new boss of France's largest listed company as "incomprehensible".
"These people, when they have hardly taken the reins of a company - which is to say they haven't yet taken any risk - are already assured to get a disproportionate package," Le Foll said on RTL radio.
The company said on Friday that the former medical doctor would be paid a fixed salary of 1.2 million euros a year plus, a performance-related amount targeted at 150 percent of that with a cap at 250 percent. He would also get stock options and performance shares.
His 4 million euro golden handshake on top of that was billed as compensation for loss of benefits at his former employer Bayer, and will be split between 2 million when he starts in April and the rest in January 2016 if he is still in the job.
Read more of this Reuters story published by Business Insider.