Brewing group Heineken is planning to relax the targets it has set senior executives in order to qualify for a bonus, the Volkskrant said at the weekend.

According to the brewing group’s recently published annual report, the supervisory board wants to ‘recalibrate’ the performance-related targets for two long-term bonuses.

This downward revision is justified by the difficult economic climate which means three of the four criteria for the bonuses cannot be met, the Volkskrant said.

Targets

The revision means chief executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer may still qualify for bonuses worth €1.1m and €850,000. Financial chief Rene Hooft may now also be entitled to bonuses of €550,000 and €400,000, even though earlier-agreed performance targets were not met.

Insitutional investors are unhappy at the move. While the Dutch corporate governance code does allow supervisory boards to intervene on executive remuneration, this is to limit bonuses by poor performance, not water down the conditions, the Volkskrant said.