A year ago, Statkraft’s “bonus party” made headlines in the Norwegian media. The state-owned power company had had a record year in earnings, and top management was paid NOK 7.2 million in bonuses while Norwegians struggled with the economy as a result of high electricity prices. A total of NOK 2.2 billion was awarded in bonuses to employees in the company in 2022.
One of the critics at the time was Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp).
– I react very strongly to those bonuses. There is something fundamentally wrong with state-owned companies having such high salaries and bonuses as we have seen in Statkraft. This is no longer possible, Vedum added The daily newspaper in March last year.
The online newspaper’s editor-in-chief Gunnar Stavrum defended Statkraft and believed that the bonus scheme was in place as the traders contribute large earnings to the Norwegian state.
– In Norway, envy is stronger than gender bias. Now it is Statkraft’s skilled traders who are going to be in the thick of it, Stavrum wrote at the time.
– Right on the nose
– It is not very often that we follow up cases in “The Debate”, Fredrik Solvang begins Thursday’s Debate broadcast, where the sky-high bonus payments were the topic.
Bonus payments have indeed decreased this year, from 2.2 billion in 2022 to 1.8 billion in 2023.
Hanne Svendsen still thinks this is a hair-raising amount, and therefore wrote to program manager Solvang. She points out that the amount corresponds to 10% of what the entire Norwegian population received in electricity subsidies.
– Then we think, in good Bergen language, that it was completely on the nose that it was possible to distribute that money in that way, says Svendsen.
– Extremely high competence
CEO of Statkraft Christian Rynning-Tønessen admits that the bonus scheme for traders in 2022 was too favorable and places the blame on the fact that the current scheme could not withstand the sky-high earnings Statkraft had this year, which was 20 times higher than expected.
He states that they changed the scheme following the criticism they received last year, and set a cap on how much it was possible to earn from these schemes. At the same time, he defends that power traders receive high bonuses.
– There is extremely high expertise behind this, you must have an overview of the power market throughout Europe. It is only on the profit that is generated, i.e. pure profit, that they get a share. The dominant share of this goes to Statkraft and to the Norwegian people via us because we are owned by the Norwegian people, explains Rynning-Tønessen.
Reveals sky-high bonus
The CEO is also asked by Fredrik Solvang how much bonus he himself was paid in 2023. He reveals that this came to NOK 1.2 million.
– You could live on the bonus alone, replies an apparently shocked Solvang.
– Ordinary people don’t even have 1.2 million in salary!
Solvang also confronts Rynning-Tønessen about why it is not possible to confirm whether the information he provides about the bonus schemes is correct.
– It is because we have to protect our employees who are within this segment purely for privacy reasons and also prevent competitors from headhunting our good people by having them see the arrangements we have, the CEO replies.