SoftBank president Arora receives pay package of 8b yen

[TOKYO] SoftBank Group Corp's Nikesh Arora was paid 8.04 billion yen (S$101 million) for the company's latest fiscal year, keeping him among the top ranks of salaries for executives in the world.

Mr Arora's compensation includes 1.56 billion yen paid by other Softbank units, according to a proxy issued by the mobile and Internet company on Thursday.

Mr Arora was paid 16.6 billion yen in the previous fiscal year, after he joined the company from Google Inc, setting a record for compensation in Japan.

SoftBank said at the time that the pay package included a signing bonus. Mr Arora held unvested Google stock options and other securities worth more than US$76 million at the end of 2013, according to the last proxy statement before his departure.

Masayoshi Son, Softbank's founder and chief executive officer, has said that Mr Arora is the most likely candidate to succeed him. Mr Arora plans to invest about US$3 billion each year as SoftBank backs startups that can become the next Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the Chinese e-commerce company that pulled off the world's largest initial public offering in 2014.

BLOOMBERG