Marchionne received $4.77m in total pay last year

The Detroit News - For his services as chief executive officer of Fiat SpA, Sergio Marchionne received $4.77 million (3.47 million euro) in 2010, according to the Italian automaker's annual report made public today.

Marchionne is also CEO of Chrysler Group LLC and while the private company does not disclose his Auburn Hills compensation, spokesman Gualberto Ranieri said Marchionne does not receive any money from Chrysler.

As part of the conditions of government bailouts, a $500,000 salary cap was put on Chrysler's top 25 executives. But another condition of loans to Chrysler was finding an international partner and there are some exemptions for Fiat executives who joined the Chrysler management team that they can still receive compensation from Fiat.

There are few Fiat executives who also work in Auburn Hills. In addition to Marchionne, there is Olivier Francois who oversees marketing and the Chrysler brand while also overseeing Fiat's marketing and the Lancia brand. Other Fiat executives including Chief Financial Officer Richard Palmer, powertrain chief Paolo Ferrero, Pietro Gorlier of Mopar and Gualberto Ranieri, head of communications, came from Fiat but now work exclusively for Chrysler.

Fiat has a 25 percent stake in Chrysler while the U.S. Treasury has 9.2 percent and the Canada and Ontario governments together have 2.3 percent. Because of the large interest rates on the government loans, Chrysler is working to renegotiate financing to pay off the $5.8 billion owed the Treasury and $1.3 billion owed in Canada.

In Italy, Marchionne earned a base salary of $4.2 million (3.05 million euro) in 2010, unchanged from 2009. But his compensation declined because he earned a bonus of $1.87 million in 2009 but received no bonus in 2010 and had other fees associated with his position.

In 2006, the Fiat board approved an 8-year stock option plan for Marchionne including 5 million options that could be redeemed over four years at 13.37 euro if performance targets were met.

Marchionne started 2010 with 19.42 million options but many expired and he ended the year with 16.82 million options. The CEO has until November 2016 to exercise them at an average price of 9.09 euro which is higher than what the stock is trading at today. And he was given another 4 million shares.

The report shows Marchionne's term as CEO expires in 2012. He has said he will not continue to hold the top job at both automakers indefinitely but has not said which set of responsibilities he plans to give up.

Chrysler recently provided performance awards to its workforce: $750 on average for unionized hourly employees and $10,000 on average to salaried employees. The top 50 earners did not receive a bonus. They were performance awards, not profit sharing checks, because Chrysler lost $652 million in 2010 but did generate at $763 million operating profit.