The turnaround of the engineering firm AtkinsRéalis, formerly SNC-Lavalin, paid off for its bosses in 2023. Its six most senior executives shared compensation of 30.4 million, up 25% compared to the previous year. last year.
This information appears in regulatory documents sent to the shareholders of the Montreal company.
President and CEO Ian Edwards earned $9.8 million in total compensation in 2023, an increase of 23% from last year.
In a letter to shareholders, the chair of the board’s human resources committee, Mary-Ann Bell, mentioned that the company had achieved its main objectives.
“AtkinsRéalis met or exceeded the initial key objectives it set for 2023, except for corporate selling, general and administrative expenses, which were higher than expected due to the successful transition to the new brand image (from SNC-Lavalin to the AtkinsRéalis brand),” she writes.
Weighed down by turnkey contracts for several years, the Montreal company managed to bring its cash flow into positive territory during the second half of the year.
SNC-Lavalin has no longer bid on turnkey contracts since 2019, as these projects often experience cost overruns. Last March, it still had to complete three before the activities of this division were completed, namely the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) in the greater Montreal area, the Trillium light train line, in Ottawa, and that of Eglinton , in Toronto.
In the document, Mme Bell mentions that the two Ontario projects should be completed and operational in 2024. The REM “continued to make marked progress” at the end of 2023.
Last year, executive compensation was approved by 97% of shareholders in an advisory vote.
Presence of French
The shareholders’ circular also communicates information on the mastery of French in the upper echelons of the Montreal multinational.
It is mentioned that two of the nine administrators speak French. Four out of eleven managers speak French within the management committee.