Enzon CEO's Pay Is Focus of Bid to Get Rid of Him

(MoneyWatch)  Expect Enzon CEO Jeffrey H. Buchalter's compensation to be a big issue in DellaCamera Capital's battle to oust him. The investment group is furious because Enzon's stock traded around $16 in 2004 but now sits in the $7 range. The company failed to make a profit last year. It's a small outfit -- it got revenues of $197 million in 2008 mainly from Oncaspar, a leukemia treatment.

But Buchalter is paid like a big-time CEO: His compensation last year was $4.8 million. The year before it was $5.2 million. The top five executives' 2008 compensation was $11.4 million, or 16 percent of the entire company's sales and admin costs. Here's what DellaCamera has to say about that:

Jeffrey Buchalter has presided over numerous failed initiatives in his nearly four and one-half year tenure with Enzon, all while being compensated to an excessive degree.

Ironically, Enzon is arguing that Buchalter should stay precisely because it is too expensive to get rid of him: If he is fired, his contract calls for about $7.9 million in cash and stock to become his immediately (see page 26).

If DellaCamera can get enough shareholder votes, Delaware chancery court will consider whether that is enough to force Buchalter out. One unanswered question so far: Who will replace Buchalter if DellaCamera succeeds?