BUSINESS BRIEFS
Directors' pay growth slows
Advertiser News Services
NEW YORK — Pay to corporate directors grew last year at a slower rate than in 2004 as boards absorbed rules changes brought about by accounting scandals, a new study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting shows.
The study, released yesterday, said corporate directors received an average 6.1 percent increase in compensation in 2005, versus a 17.8 percent rise in 2004. That compares with a 5 percent boost for chief executives and an average 5.5 percent rise for workers at private companies across the nation last year.
MARTHA STEWART DOCKED $195,000
Homemaking diva Martha Stewart will pay about $195,000 and cannot serve as the director of a public company for five years under a settlement announced yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission on civil insider-trading charges.
Under the settlement, the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., a multimedia empire dedicated to stylish living, agreed to make a payment relating to losses the government said she avoided on her sale of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in December 2001.
HONG KONG GETS A KRISPY KREME
HONG KONG — U.S. doughnut maker Krispy Kreme plans to begin dipping into the massive Chinese-speaking market today by opening a shop in Hong Kong — China's richest city.
The 2,000-square-foot shop tucked down a side street in the busy Causeway Bay shopping district marks Krispy Kreme's debut on Chinese soil and only its second foray into East Asia.
So far, Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Corp. has nine shops in South Korea, but it's expanding aggressively in other parts of the region.
Other than Hong Kong, the company has signed franchise deals with groups in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, which plan to open stores by the end of the year. It has also signed up a franchisee in the Middle East.
