Dag Terje Andersen of the Labour Party, who took over his post as a cabinet minister this fall, already has promised to put a stop to new stock option deals for Telenor executives.
Now he may call for the resignation of Telenor chairman Thorleif Enger, who's known for handsome executive compensation of his own at fertilizer conglomerate Yara, which was spun off from state-controlled Norsk Hydro.
Newspaper Dagsavisen reported Friday that Andersen wants to back up his demands for a stop to stock option enticements by changing the make-up of Telenor's board.
That's because Telenor has failed to heed earlier calls by a wide political range of Norwegian government leaders to address the sensitive issue of high executive compensation.
No personnel changes, however, are likely until next spring. Andersen said Friday afternoon that the board's performance would be evaluated at Telenor's next annual meeting, scheduled for May 15.
There was no indication he would call for an extraordinary shareholders meeting to deal with the options issue.
The current storm of protests was set off when Telenor chief executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas cashed in stock options that gave him a windfall gain of around NOK 16 million (USD 2.45 million), in addition to his regular salary and benefits. A Telenor spokesman said earlier this week that Baksaas had decided to cash in his options because he "needed cash" to take over a holiday home.
Temperatures rose when it became clear that Baksaas, by exercising more options, can lay claim to another gain of as much as NOK 21 million. Labour leaders aren't the only ones who think that represents excessive compensation, especially at a time when business leaders are constantly calling for moderation on the part of employees' salary demands.
Telenor chairman Enger has shown little understanding for the opposition to such executive compensation, saying earlier this week that when a company performs well and churns out profits, its leaders should be entitled to their piece of the cake.
Andersen doesn't agree, and has said the state, through its shareholding in Telenor, will now vote against all management proposals for stock-based compensation programs.
Now it appears Baksaas may not be sitting so securely in his chief executive post, while Enger may be outright replaced. Andersen said in a radio debate Wednesday that he doesn't mean to single anyone out, but rather that the Telenor options deals are "an example of what we don't want."
