Overpaid and over there

Thinking you’re worth more than you’re paid? Here’s an unconsoling thought from Reuters: the agency reports that Elon Musk’s new Tesla pay deal of close to $1trillion over 10 years involved lots of new milestones before he could cash in.

But, “Musk could reap tens of billions of dollars without meeting most of those targets”, according to Reuters analysis. “Even hitting just two of the easiest targets, along with modest stock growth, would net Musk $26 billion.”

There’s an incentive: money beyond your “wildest dreams” as Robbie Williams once screeched, for the “easiest targets”. We should all be so lucky.

Home truths

Here in the UK, KPMG partner Anthony Sykes was fined by watchdog for less than glorious work on the audit of N Brown, the retail group.

Sykes was severely reprimanded and fined £90,000 reduced to £51,000 for helping with inquiries. Meanwhile KPMG was fined £1.25m, reduced to £710,000 for cooperating with regulators.

Jamie Symington, deputy executive counsel at the Financial Reporting Council, said: “In this case, there were numerous failings in relation to the audit work on impairment, despite it having been identified as a significant risk.”

Sykes and KPMG have been here before. In 2023 they were fined for failure on the audit of another retailer, TheWorks.co.uk plc, and in 2022 for far below par work on the audit of Rolls-Royce plc. It’s a hat trick no one wants to boast about.

Five-year plan

Amid the frustration caused by the Trump regime’s rejection of sustainability as a worthy objective, we cling on to snippets of good news.

Surprisingly, KPMG has some. The firm’s Global CEO Outlook reveals 61% of CEOs (1,300 polled for this survey) still believe they can meet their net-zero goals by 2030, pleasingly up from 51% last year.

Bill Thomas, KPMG’s global chair and CEO, says: “Ultimately, the leaders who can embrace market volatility and focus investments in the right strategic areas for their organisation will be the ones best placed to unlock new opportunities and build sustainable, long-term growth.”