SINGAPORE (April 21): Resorts World Sentosa COO Tan Hee Teck received what has to be one of the more glittery pairs of golden handcuffs around which the company felt was necessary to stave off a poaching attempt.

That golden handcuffs amounted to no less than 27.75 million performance shares in Genting Singapore.

This was disclosed at Genting Singapore’s annual general meeting today, when shareholders queried Tan’s generous performance share allocation, which was on top of his total remuneration last year of between $4 million and $4.25 million.

By contrast, executive chairman Lim Kok Thay drew a total package of between $9 million and $9.25 million in salary and bonus, with an additional 750,000 shares.

Tan rejoined the Genting group in 2004 from DBS Vickers Securities (Singapore), where he was chief operating officer and executive director. He first joined the Genting group back in 1982.

Tjong Yik Min, chairman of the remuneration committee, explained that out of the 27.75 million shares, 750,000 were for meeting specific performances, another two million were for winning the Jeju Island integrated resort project in South Korea, and the remaining 25 million shares were to entice Tan to stay.

The company is now gearing up to open its US$1.8 billion Jeju Island IR joint venture from 2017 onwards and is also trying to secure a similar IR project in Japan if and when the country’s legislation allows the stalled process to resume.

“It is the considered opinion of the board that it is necessary for us to retain Mr Tan's services at this critical point and this is what it takes for us to retain Mr Tan,” said Tjong at the AGM, adding that the 25 million shares can only be vested at tranches of five million over five years.

The shares were awarded to Tan at an average price of $1.315. Genting Singapore shares have dropped more than 20% over the past one-year period, under-performing the Straits Times Index's 8% gain over the same period. They traded at around $1.05 on April 21.

Tjong stressed that Tan, who was key to winning Genting’s bid for RWS, wasn’t headhunted by another gaming company.

“Obviously, what he has done for Genting has not escaped the notice of all the other head hunters and whoever wants high fliers to get their business out of the ground. Is 25 million shares a lot for this kind of talent? Probably not. The board has a simple decision: either we retain Mr Tan or we let him go,” he said.

When asked, Tjong said he knew who was trying to poach Tan, but did not ask how much the competitor was offering to pay. “You want to ask Mr Tan himself,” said Tjong.

Lim, the company executive chairman, also defended Tan’s pay, claiming that he rightly deserves the golden handcuffs. “If it was me, maybe I’ll ask for diamond cuffs.”

“After the meeting, go shake his hand,” added Lim.'

Denis Distant, a long-time Genting Singapore shareholder, had a string of follow-up questions on details regarding the performance shares.

However, he added that he wasn’t trying to “find fault” with Tan for receiving so many shares.

“I’ve followed you from the first AGM held in a Sentosa hotel, when there’s no (RWS) resort, just a mock-up, to what we have today. You’ve done a great job and thank you for taking shares (instead of cash),” said Distant, to applause from other minority shareholders.

A slightly embarrassed Tan said: “Thank you sir, I really appreciate your comments, and I'll take that to heart and I'll work very hard for you.”

Genting Singapore is up 1.5 cents to $1.04 as at 4:23 p.m.