GETTING a three-month bonus at the end of the year may be a satisfying reward for most people.

Now imagine getting 80 months' bonus. That means for that a year worked, you will get about seven years' worth of pay in terms of bonus.

Going by company annual reports, it looks like there were quite a few exceptional people who did that well last year.

Property bigwig Kwek Leng Beng, City Developments' executive chairman, earned a monthly salary of at least $77,500 last year.

But his bonus (including allowances) at year-end was at least $6.35 million - or 82 months of his monthly salary, according to the property group's 2007 annual report.

It's not hard to understand why, given that the group's full-year net profit more than doubled to a record $725m last year, according to a Straits Times report in February.

Mr Kwek made between $7.75m and $8m last year, according to that report.

Also doing very well was his counterpart, CapitaLand's chief executive, Mr Liew Mun Leong, who received a monthly salary of around $90,000 last year, according to the company's summary report.

His bonus was an equally impressive $5.3m - about 59 times his monthly salary and his total remuneration was about $6.5m.

Some industry watchers we spoke to were surprised by the figures.

One of them, Chesterton International's head of research and consultancy, Mr Colin Tan, noted that last year was a phenomenal year for the property market, with one of the biggest ever number of properties sold at record prices.

And when property companies do well, it's not unusual to hear of one-year bonuses, he said.

'But I've never heard of bonuses in terms of five, six years before,' he said.

It is not just these two property honchos' bonuses that have hit stratospheric levels. A look at the remuneration packages of other CEOs also threw up some huge numbers.

United Overseas Bank CEO Wee Ee Cheong earned between $6m and $6.25m for the 2007 financial year, according to the bank's annual report.

His monthly salary was at least $80,000 and his bonus was about $5m or 62 months' worth.

Singapore Exchange CEO Hsieh Fu Hua's monthly salary was about $62,000 for the last financial year, but his bonus of $4.5m is about 71 months of his salary, according to the SGX annual report.

These may be huge pay packages here, but human resource consultants we spoke to say it's the norm elsewhere.

Mr Fabrice Desmarescaux, a consultant with executive search firm Spencer Stuart, said the CEOs' remuneration structure and pay here is comparable to those in Europe and US, with an emphasis on a variable bonus.

Singapore Human Resource Institute executive director David Ang said that this multi-million dollar bonus is necessary to motivate this exceptional group of people to do well.

He said: 'Their bonus is based on some key performance indicators, such as the company's profitability, how they maximised capital for returns, how they contain costs and earnings per share.'

He said the CEO's service contract is usually proposed by the board of directors, remuneration committee or an independent consultancy.

DRAWBACKS, TOO

Having a high variable bonus can be a double-edged sword, said Mr Paul Heng, founder of Next Career Consulting.

He said: 'For the CEO, the risk of not getting that variable is there. If something happens, like the market crashes, it'll impact on his bonus.

'If it's a good year, of course, they'll get much more.'

For most employees, the basic salary is about 60 to 70 per cent of the annual package, with variable bonuses making up the rest.

And Mr Ang thinks bonuses should make up a bigger part of remuneration packages for all employees.

'This will drive up productivity and business efficiency. If the overall company targets are made clear, people who achieve the targets know that they'll get rewarded accordingly,' he said.

But, said Mr Heng: 'For the rank-and-file employees, the risks of high variable bonuses are that you may not get it at the year-end.'

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