Anheuser-Busch Cos said its chief financial officer, W. Randolph Baker, was the only named executive eligible for an enhanced buyout program that the company approved for its employees in the weeks before its $52-billion takeover by former Belgian rival InBev NV.
If Baker elects to participate in the enhanced retirement program, he would receive a payment of $2,712,152.
Anheuser-Busch estimated that about 360 key employees are eligible for the buyout. It expects to reduce its salaried workforce by 10 percent to 15 percent as a result of this program and attrition.
The revised program, which supersedes the program disclosed on June 25, will provide enhanced pension and retiree medical benefits, as well as severance, to salaried employees who are at least 55 years old as of Dec. 31, 2008. The severance benefit will range from 15 months of base salary to two times the sum of base salary and target bonus and will include continuation of benefits.
Busch said it will recognize in the third and fourth quarters of 2008 one-time pretax charges ranging from $400 million to $525 million for enhanced retirement and severance costs, with associated cash expenditures of about $100 million to $140 million.