CEO sticks with Contact

By Mark Reynolds

Contact Energy chief executive Paul Anthony has resisted the temptation to take advantage of a multi-million-dollar golden parachute clause in his contract, which he could have activated following the Government's sale of the company last month.

"It is my intention to stay at Contact," Mr Anthony said yesterday.

He is staying on with the support of Contact's main shareholder, Edison Mission Energy of the United States. Edison owns 40 per cent of Contact and the company's executives have said they consider Mr Anthony and other senior managers at the company as key assets.

Mr Anthony has been negotiating a new contract to take account of the fact that he is giving up the potential golden parachute payment, but he declined to comment on any of those negotiations yesterday.

The Welsh-born executive's contract allowed him to give 12 months' written notice following the sale of Contact. He would have been paid the equivalent of three times his annual salary including bonuses, had he decided to leave. Mr Anthony's total salary and bonuses in the financial year to the end of September 1998 was around $650,000.

The severance package was negotiated last year when he was being head-hunted and Contact needed him to stay on through the sales process.

Meanwhile, another of Contact's senior executives will leave the company today. Tina Symmans, the company's general manager of corporate support services, has resigned.

She handled government relations management for the company and in that role led the struggle to privatise Contact. She also played a key role in negotiating many of Contact Energy's purchases of retail electricity businesses last year.

Tina Symmans said yesterday that her goal was privatisation of the company and that task had been completed.