Mony grab

Dissident shareholders of Mony Group have argued that Axa’s $1.5 billion takeover bid for the company is too low.

But to some Mony employees, the deal is too rich -- for the firm’s top executives.

Assuming that Axa Financial, the U.S. arm of French insurance giant Axa, consummates the pending purchase, 14 senior Mony managers will pocket more than $90 million in “change of control” compensation. Of that sum, $23 million will go to CEO Michael Roth, 58, who will then retire.

“For Mike Roth to collect $23 million as head of a company with a $1.5 billion market cap is unbelievable,” says one veteran Mony financial planner. That’s on a par with the $22.5 million severance package that John Hancock CEO David D’Alessandro negotiated as part of his company’s September merger agreement with Manulife Financial Corp. But, notes the peeved Mony employee: “Hancock is ten times bigger [than Mony]. Meanwhile, hundreds of guys are left with options that are underwater. It’s sickening.”

Roth and Axa Financial chief Kip Condron decline comment. Both companies defend the deal, which they expect to complete in the first quarter pending regulatory approvals. Prominent Mony shareholders -- most vocally, Boston-based hedge fund Highfields Capital Management -- contend that the $31-a-share price undercuts the firm’s book value by $12 a share. A Mony spokeswoman counters that the offer “represents a 25 percent premium over Mony’s 52-week average trading price” before the September 17 merger announcement, a price that already “included a premium based on market speculation that Mony would be the target of an acquisition.”

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