Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman sees pay drop to $5.97M in 2009

Oskar Garcia, Associated Press

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 | 12:07 p.m.

Gary Loveman

The chief executive of casino operator Harrah's Entertainment Inc. was paid $5.97 million in 2009, less than one-sixth as much as the $39.6 million he made in 2008.

The privately held company's president and CEO, Gary Loveman, received salary of $1.9 million, a $3 million cash bonus and just over $1 million in perks in 2009, according to an Associated Press calculation based on a Monday regulatory filing.

Loveman got no stock or options, which made up more than $36 million of his pay in 2008. His salary and perks were slightly down compared with 2008, but he did not receive a cash bonus that year.

Loveman's perks included $394,529 worth of security for Loveman and his family, which the company approved based on recommendations from a consultant, as well as $330,618 for use of a company jet and $185,195 on hotel stays and lodging taxes.

Harrah's reported net income of $827.6 million in 2009, compared with a loss of $5.2 billion for 2008, when the company was taken private by two equity firms. Harrah's turned the 2009 profit despite lower revenue of $8.9 billion compared with $9.4 billion in 2008.

Apollo Global Management LLC and TPG Capital, LP, completed the $30.7 billion buyout in January 2008, assuming $12.4 billion in debt and about $1 billion in transaction costs. The company said that as of April 30, Apollo and TPG together owned 99 percent of the company's stock, 46.7 million shares. Loveman owned 469,824 shares.

The company said it had $22.47 billion in debt as of March 31.

The AP formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, making the AP total different in most cases than the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.