MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren paid $13.75 million in 2009

Associated Press

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 | 4:49 p.m.

Jim Murren

MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren got a $13.75 million pay package in 2009, his first full year as the casino operator's top executive, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing the company made late Tuesday.

Murren last year made about 3.7 times what he did in 2008, when he spent the first 11 months as MGM Mirage's chief operating officer.

Murren's 2009 pay included $2 million in salary, a $500,000 bonus, a $3.5 million performance-based cash bonus and $664,000 in perks.

The perks were mostly travel-related, including $265,783 for Murren's personal use of a company aircraft, as well as $136,000 for insurance premiums and benefits and funds for an attorney to help him negotiate his employment contract.

Murren received stock options worth $7.09 million when they were granted.

MGM Mirage shares rose 9 cents to $15.09 on Wednesday, when the company announced it would ask bondholders to approve a name change to MGM Resorts International.

Shares of MGM Mirage dropped during 2009 from $15.44 to $9.12, on Dec. 31.

Murren owned 2.5 million shares in the company as of April 1, the company said, less than 1 percent of the company.

MGM Mirage's largest stockholder is billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 37 percent of its stock _ 163 million shares. Kerkorian lost his majority stake in the company in May last year when MGM Mirage issued new stock and he did not buy enough to maintain his 53.8 percent stake.

Another major shareholder is a subsidiary of Dubai World, MGM Mirage's joint venture partner in the $8.5 billion CityCenter complex on the Las Vegas Strip, which owns nearly 29 million shares of MGM Mirage stock _ 6.56 percent.

MGM Mirage worked last year to keep customers at its casinos and on the development and opening of CityCenter. The complex, which includes luxury resorts, restaurants, shopping, entertainment and a casino, has been touted by Murren and other company executives as the future for the company and Las Vegas.

But the company said last week that its preliminary estimates show it lost $96.7 million during the first quarter, partly because the value of CityCenter's residential units was dropping, the second writedown it's taken on the project.

MGM Mirage lost $1.29 billion, or $3.41 per share, in 2009.

The Associated Press formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, making the AP total different in most cases than the total reported by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission.