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Technology Stocks : Nortel Networks (NT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: larry pollock who wrote (10388)	3/23/2001 1:03:31 PM
From: larry pollock	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14638

Nortel Told by Pension Fund to Grant Fewer Options, Post Says By Steve Maich Toronto, March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board, one of Canada's biggest institutional investors, will demand that Nortel Networks Corp. grant senior executives fewer stock options after the company's chief executive reaped $88 million in options gains in 2000, the National Post reported. Representatives of the pension fund plan to meet privately with Nortel directors before the company's annual meeting in Calgary, Alberta, on April 26, the Post reported. Ontario Teachers is lobbying members of Nortel's compensation committee to change the options plan, the paper said. Nortel is the biggest maker of fiber-optic equipment. ``The executives at Nortel all have high salaries, a lucrative bonus plan and a rich pension and yet they want all these options,'' the paper quoted Ontario Teachers Senior Vice President Brian Gibson as saying. ``It's more than we think shareholders should be asked to pay to get quality management.'' At issue is the 15 percent of Nortel's shares that the company reserved for executive options in 2000, the Post said. The fund's corporate-governance policy generally opposes any options plan that reserves more than 10 percent of a company's shares, the paper reported. Nortel's Canadian shares have plummeted 71 percent in the past year. They rose C$3.15 ($2.01), or 12 percent, to C$28.75 yesterday. Ontario Teachers has sought to force companies to restrict the exercise of options if their financial performance lags industry rivals. It has targeted Bracknell Corp., Hummingbird Ltd., National Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, MDS Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., the Post said. The fund voted against Nortel's options plan at last year's annual meeting in Ottawa, the Post said. (National Post, 03/23/ D1) (For the Web site of the National post see: {NPST } Access More Information and Services Above