IN BRIEF: Ahmanson CEO Got 56% Raise Last Year

H.F. Ahmanson & Co. chairman and chief executive Charles R. Rinehart collected $4.7 million in salary, bonus, and long-term payouts in 1997, 56% more than the year before.

This included $1.6 million from exercising options on Ahmanson stock, according to the firm's annual proxy filed Wednesday.

In March, Mr. Rinehart agreed to sell Ahmanson to Washington Mutual Inc., the same company that battled Ahmanson in 1997 to buy Great Western Financial Corp.

Because of the change in control at Ahmanson, Mr. Rinehart is to collect $9.2 million in stock and severance payments-a relatively small amount compared with what other CEOs have received for selling their banks or thrifts.

But Mr. Rinehart is to join Washington Mutual's board of directors, and his approximately 620,000 Ahmanson options will convert to Washington Mutual options.

As of Dec. 31, Mr. Rinehart's exercisable and unexercisable options were worth about $27 million, according to the proxy, though Ahmanson's share price has risen by 55% since then.

Since agreeing to sell to Washington Mutual, Mr. Rinehart has apparently been shedding his 1.1 million shares of Ahmanson stock. On May 29 he filed to sell about 104,000 shares worth $8.2 million, and a Rinehart family trust filed to sell about 60,000 shares worth $4.8 million that same day.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER