Long-term trends reveal a decline in the number of executive KMP positions with remuneration disclosure. Nevertheless, the number of executive KMP being disclosed may surprise many.

Guerdon Associates investigated the long-term trends in ASX 300 executive Key Management Personnel (KMP) remuneration disclosure over the period from 2006 to 2023 within our GuerdonData® disclosures database (see HERE). We analysed the change in number of executive KMP positions for the 61 consistent ASX 300 constituents during this 17 year period.

We employed controls to ensure that no executive positions were multiply counted. This was done by removing additional individuals who served in the same executive position as another individual during the corresponding financial year, so that there was one individual for each position.

As shown in Table 1, there has been a steady decline in number of ASX 300 executive KMP disclosed since 2010. The average number of executive KMP disclosed per company peaked in 2010, before eventually falling to 6 executive KMP per company in 2022. The median number of executive KMP across the five years considered was 440, equating to roughly 7 individuals per company.

Table 1: Number of executive KMP disclosed in the 61 companies featuring in the ASX 300 from 2006 to 2022 (quadrennial data).

 

Outside of ASX 300 companies with consistent quadrennial data since 2006, we looked at all current ASX 300 companies with data in each of the years, although many have not been part of the ASX 300 throughout. Table 2 shows the average number of disclosed executive KMP among these companies has also seen a steady decline since 2006.

Table 2: Number of executive KMP for current ASX 300 companies with quadrennial data from 2006 to 2022.

 

Looking at both tables it would seem that the ASX 300 companies originally disclosing in 2006 that remained as part of the ASX 300 throughout disclose more executive KMP.

We further analysed the evolution of executive KMP disclosures by looking at year-on-year data from 2018 to 2023 inclusive, to capture more recent trends. Table 3 further illustrates a downward trend in the number of disclosed executive KMP, with the average number of executives per company falling from 7 in 2018 down to 5 in 2023.

Table 3: Number of executive KMP for all ASX 300 companies with consistent yearly data from 2018 to 2023.

 

This was compared against data for all current ASX 300 companies in the years 2018 to 2023, as depicted in Table 4. Consistent with our previous observations, the average number of disclosed executive KMP has declined among these companies since 2018.

Table 4: Number of executive KMP for current ASX 300 companies with yearly data from 2018 to 2023.

 

Our findings are consistent across each analysis – there appears to be a long-term trend for fewer executive KMP remuneration disclosures among ASX 300 constituents.

See our previous article on number of disclosed executive KMP in 2023 HERE, and our 2018 article HERE.

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