Teva agrees to lift the veil on executive pay

Teva CEO Jeremy Levin

Want to know how much Jeremy Levin makes? You'll soon find out. The numbers on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' ($TEVA) CEO pay will finally go public, now that the company has settled a lawsuit from investors angry about the compensation secrecy.

The Israeli company had been exploiting a legal loophole that allowed it to stop disclosing executive compensation. From 2000 to 2012, Teva only reported the total paid to its 5 top managers. So, after Levin jumped ship to Teva from Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) last year, his pay package went behind the Teva veil.

In November, shareholders Sharon Hannes and Ehud Kamar sued Teva, demanding information on executive pay. As Bloomberg notes, the lawsuit came at a time when Levin was promising more transparency as he worked to put Teva on a track toward new growth. And now, the company has settled that lawsuit, agreeing to disclose the information and pay about $1.1 million in legal fees and expenses, plus $200,000 in compensation for Hannes and Kamar.

Both law professors, Hannes and Kamar hailed the settlement as a breakthrough for Israeli shareholders. Teva wasn't the only company that put its executive pay behind a curtain in Israel. Its move inspired other Israeli companies to do the same, they said. "Teva will change its compensation disclosure practices in a significant way," said the shareholders, Sharon Hannes and Ehud Kamar. "We expect other dual-listed companies to follow Teva and also disclose executive compensation on an individual basis."

- check out the Teva release
- read the Bloomberg story
- get more from Globes

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