VIENNA Va. Proxy adviser Proxy Governance Inc. recommended Thursday that shareholders of Landry’s Restaurants Inc. withhold their votes for its compensation committee to protest the pay package of chief executive Tilman Fertitta as being "out of line" with those at comparable companies.
The advisory firm said Fertitta's pay last year was 351 percent above the median for CEOs at "peer companies." Proxy Governance, based here, also said that the $11.4 million in restricted stock awards to Fertitta, already Landry's largest shareholder, "do little to further align the interests of the executive with those of other shareholders."
Fertitta also received $1.45 million in salary, $883,409 in other compensation and a $1.58 million bonus, though Houston-based Landry's posted a 2006 net loss of $21.8 million on revenues that fell 9.6 percent to $1.13 billion.
Landry's owns about 180 restaurants in some 30 states, including the Landry's Seafood House, Rainforest Cafe, Chart House, and Saltgrass Steakhouse chains and two Golden Nugget casino-hotels in Nevada.
