Sunbeam Extends Chairman’s Pay Contract

Sunbeam Corp., the largest U.S. maker of small household appliances, said it gave Chairman and Chief Executive Jerry Levin an option to purchase 3 million shares of the unprofitable company at $4.125 each for the next 10 years as part of a new pay agreement. The grant, made Jan. 3, wasn’t valued, and is worthless at Sunbeam’s current prices. Sunbeam also said it cut Levin’s pay last year 66% to $3.5 million from his initial year, when he also got a big option grant. The compensation agreement extended Levin’s employment contract through June 2003, from the original expiration date of June 2001. Sunbeam’s shares fell 39% in 1999, when it had a loss of $299.5 million. The loss came mostly from interest payments and other expenses stemming from acquisitions made in 1998 before Albert Dunlap was fired as chairman. In 1999, Levin was paid a salary of $1.1 million, a bonus of $1.5 million, other compensation of $88,231 and an option to buy 250,000 shares at $5.56 a share through 2009, valued by the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company at $806,462. Levin, a longtime associate of financier Ronald Perelman, was chairman and chief executive of cosmetics maker Revlon Inc. and camping-products company Coleman Co. before coming to Sunbeam as part of Sunbeam’s purchase of Coleman in 1998. Sunbeam also said it will close its remaining 11 outlet stores in the U.S. and Canada by June, firing about 60 people. Sunbeam shares rose 6 cents to close at $3.56 on the NYSE.

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