S-Oil's Net Profit Plunges Last Year
S-Oil’s Saudi Arabian board members showed a low attendance rate in 2019.
S-OIL's largest shareholder is Saudi Aramco with a 63.41 percent stake, and the company's board consists of one inside director, four non-executive directors who serve as executives at Saudi Aramco, and six outside directors.
The attendance rates of three of the four non-executive directors remained in the 50 percent to 70 percent range last year. The remaining one, who joined the board in June 2019, showed a 100 percent attendance rate, but his predecessor showed 67 percent.
All of the four non-executive directors gathered only once at the fourth board meeting held in June 2019 to appoint Hussein Al-Katani as CEO.
In 2019, S-OIL posted a net profit of 66.5 billion won, a 75.6 percent decrease from the previous year. The plunge in its net income forced S-OIL to consider reducing dividend payouts and performance pays and running a voluntary retirement program.
The monthly pay of the four non-executive directors averaged 83 million won in 2019, the same as the previous year, showing that their salaries had nothing to with their attendance rates or the company’s performance.
"In the case of non-executive directors, they are incumbent executives of Saudi Aramco. They may not attend board meetings due to their overseas business trips and time zone problems,” an S-OIL official explained. "If it is difficult for them to participate in person, they properly take part in decision-making processes by sending their opinions through e-mail."