Lender offers execs pay to stay
Four top Countrywide Financial Corp. executives will receive retention payments totaling $7.4 million if they remain with the beleaguered lender through March 15, Countrywide said in a regulatory filing Thursday.
But this is one payday that Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo will miss. He was not among the named executives eligible for a retention payment.
President David Sambol would receive $1.9 million and Chief Financial Officer Eric Sieracki would get $1.5 million.
Also, Ranjit Kripalani, managing director of the company’s capital markets division, would receive $2.5 million, and Carlos Garcia, chief of Countrywide’s banking operations, would get $1.45 million, according to the filing.
The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailed some of the arrangements the Calabasas lender had made regarding its acquisition by Bank of America Corp.
Bank of America agreed to buy Countrywide in an all-stock transaction last week valued at $4.1 billion. The deal came as Countrywide suffered mounting losses because of defaults on sub-prime loans to borrowers with shaky credit.
If these executives remain with the company through the planned merger with Bank of America, they also would receive stock “units” equivalent to hundreds of thousands of shares. The value of those units, which vest -- or become fully owned by the executive -- in increments through 2011, were worth $4 million based on Countrywide’s price Thursday of $5.48 a share, down 46 cents.
Bank of America shares sank $1.78 to $36.91.
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