Salary increased tenfold Oerlikon boss pockets millions - while company value plummets
Oerlikon CEO Michael Suess has increased his salary tenfold in ten years, as an analysis shows. At the same time, the company value has fallen significantly.
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- Since Michael Suess took over ten years ago, the company value of the industrial group Oerlikon has fallen by two thirds. The share price is falling.
- As an analysis shows, the salary of today's Oerlikon CEO has nevertheless increased tenfold.
- The company's poor figures are partly the result of bad investments, such as the 400 million francs invested in a failed 3D printing initiative.
"By taking the path we have chosen, we can create significant added value for you and all other stakeholders in the long term," promised Michael Süss ten years ago as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Oerlikon industrial group. However, only his salary has increased since then, as an analysis by the Handelszeitung shows.
When he took over as Chairman of the Board of Directors, Michael Süss received a fee of CHF 629,000. Ten years later, Süss is Executive Chairman, his salary package according to the latest annual report: "Total Compensation Granted 2024: 7.55 million."
Oerlikon's company value has fallen by two thirds since Michael Suess took over
According to the press office, some components of the CEO and Chairman's salary are variable and linked to the achievement of targets over several years, which is why the remuneration would be correspondingly lower.
However, in comparison with larger companies such as Sulzer, Schindler or Georg Fischer, their CEO salaries are far lower. The discrepancy is particularly striking at elevator manufacturer Schindler: the company's turnover is four times higher and its profit ten times higher than that of Oerlikon - and yet the Schindler CEO receives at least 1 million less than Süss.
Yet there is little sign today of the "significant added value" that the Oerlikon boss promised ten years ago: Since Michael Süss took over, the company's value has fallen by two thirds - to 1.3 billion Swiss francs. Profit, which amounted to 388 million francs in 2016, now stands at just 72 million. A disaster for shareholders.
The reasons for the poor figures? Michael Süss always had an excuse ready. In 2023 and 2024, it was due to the "challenging environment", and major shareholder Viktor Vekselberg also had to explain the poor performance.
The US-sanctioned billionaire from Russia would have meant a penalty on the share price of "up to 60 percent", as Süss explained in Bilanz a year ago. But at Sulzer, where the Russian holds more shares than at Oerlikon, Suzanne Thoma has doubled the share price in the last three years, while it has shrunk by almost half at Oerlikon ...
Oerlikon: 400 million francs sunk
The reasons for the poor figures are more likely to be found in bad investments, such as a failed 3D printing initiative. In 2022, Michael Süss raved about the "revolutionary potential" and announced that additive manufacturing, i.e. industry from 3D printers, would "change the world".
Together with the Technical University of Munich (TUM), he founded the TUM-Oerlikon Advanced Manufacturing Institute, where research, teaching and doctoral students were to be supervised. Three years later, there is hardly anything left of it. According to the "Handelszeitung" newspaper, around 400 million Swiss francs were sunk in the process. A bad investment that can only deeply annoy shareholders. However, in view of Michael Süss's current salary, this is unlikely to matter much to him.
