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Moutai chairman earns 20 times more than Wuliangye's

By Cai Muyuan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-13 17:11

Moutai chairman earns 20 times more than Wuliangye's
Yuan Renguo, chairman of Kweichow Moutai Co. [qq.com]

Moutai chairman earns 20 times more than Wuliangye's
Tang Qiao, chairman of Wuliangye Yibin Co. [sznews.com]

Wuliangye Yibin Co, one of China's top liquor producers, revealed in its annual report that the yearly salary of its chairman, Tang Qiao, is 92,500 yuan in 2009 while Yuan Renguo, the chairman of top liquor producer Kweichow Moutai Co, earns more than 2 million yuan last year, Securities Daily reported Tuesday.

Wuliangye's sales revenue hit 11.13 billion yuan last year, the highest among all the domestic liquor producers. Its net profits in 2009 were 3.24 billion yuan. As its chairman, Tang's low income surprised lots of investors, the newspaper reported.

Brand strategy expert Yu Qingjiao questioned the number during an interview with the newspaper. According to him, compared with senior officials of other liquor producers, Tang's salary seems too low to be true.

Shu Guohua, chairman of a business planning company, pointed out that the 20-times income gap resulted from Wuliangye's incomplete enterprise reconstruction. He also noted that the senior executives' salaries of SOEs are mainly decided by local government and the provincial State-owned assets supervision branch, the newspaper said.