GE boosts CEO’s pay in ’07 to $19.6 million

General Electric Co. boosted Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt’s total compensation 9.7% last year to $19.6 million as he sold lagging units including plastics and sub-prime mortgage while investing in faster-growing industries such as oil and commercial finance.

Immelt, 52, also got 215,000 shares of stock valued at about $7.28 million tied to cash flow, half the payout he would have received if GE outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index in five- and two-year periods. Immelt’s salary was unchanged at $3.3 million and his bonus rose 16% to $5.8 million, Fairfield, Conn.-based GE said Monday in a proxy filing.

Through the end of last year, GE’s shares lagged behind the Standard & Poor’s 500 index under Immelt. GE, the world’s third-biggest company by market value, rewarded Immelt for reaching or surpassing goals tied to revenue, earnings, cash flow and margins as well as the $11.6 billion the company received for selling its plastics unit. He took over Sept. 7, 2001.

“Mr. Immelt is continuing to position the company for sustained growth,” the compensation committee of GE’s board wrote in the proxy statement. “This performance, in a difficult economic environment, enabled the company to maintain its solid AAA rating, keep risk at very acceptable levels and return over $25 billion to investors through dividends and the stock buyback program, which was completed one year early.”

Immelt, who works without a contract, purchased 183,000 shares in the open market last year, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing said. He bought 90,000 more shares Friday valued at about $3 million, bringing his total direct holdings to about 1.36 million shares, according to a separate SEC filing Monday.

GE rose 26 cents to $33.40.