Pay Ratio
The total expense for the non-equity remuneration paid to the CEO for the year ended December 31, 2025, totaled $1,631,826. The table below shows the evolution over the past five years of CEO compensation, the performance of the Company’s stock price and the median remuneration on a full-time equivalent basis (annualized for the employees who joined or left us during the year) of employees, other than the CEO:
|
|
|
|
2021 |
|
2022 |
|
2023 |
|
2024 |
|
2025 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Base pay of the CEO (EUR) |
|
€ |
|
551,250 |
|
606,368 |
|
606,368 |
|
700,000 |
|
732,000 |
||||
Base pay of the CEO (USD) |
|
$ |
|
580,825 |
|
638,901 |
|
655,787 |
|
757,680 |
|
827,160 |
||||
Non-equity remuneration of the CEO (USD) (base pay, short-term cash incentive, pension contributions and other compensation elements) |
|
$ |
|
1,285,136 |
|
1,443,925 |
|
1,285,056 |
|
1,598,471 |
|
1,631,826 |
||||
Total remuneration of the CEO (USD) (non-equity remuneration, STI and LTI) |
|
$ |
|
7,263,828 |
|
7,778,298 |
|
11,944,8351) |
|
7,807,786 |
|
7,429,771 |
||||
Non-equity median salary paid to employees (USD) |
|
$ |
|
157,349 |
|
153,193 |
|
159,500 |
|
180,543 |
|
195,500 |
||||
Non-equity remuneration ratio employee/CEO |
|
|
|
12% |
|
11% |
|
12% |
|
11% |
|
12% |
||||
Average remuneration paid to Non-Executive Director (USD) |
|
$ |
|
54,484 |
|
48,587 |
|
59,230 |
|
81,204 |
|
85,992 |
||||
Number of employees on December 31 |
|
|
|
650 |
|
843 |
|
1,148 |
|
1,599 |
|
1,863 |
||||
Share price at end of year Euronext (EUR) on December 31 |
|
€ |
|
315.30 |
|
348.30 |
|
343.50 |
|
600.00 |
|
716.80 |
||||
Share price at end of year Euronext (USD) on December 31 |
|
$ |
|
357.11 |
|
371.50 |
|
379.57 |
|
623.34 |
|
842.24 |
||||
|
||||||||||||||||
The comparison of non-equity compensation above is made between the compensation paid to the CEO, the Company’s sole statutory Executive Director on the Board of Directors, and the median compensation paid to employees. The Company has opted to compare non-equity salaries, because while the number of stock options granted is linked to the overall size of remuneration packages granted, the value of equity components depends on the evolution of the Company’s share price, volatility and the risk-free rate, which is unknown at the time of grant and as such the forward-looking valuation methods for stock options normally do not provide an accurate representation of actual economic value granted. In the assumptions used, the fair valuation differs between a Belgian beneficiary versus a non-Belgian beneficiary. For a description of the assumptions used in valuing these awards, please refer to “Note 13 Share-Based Payments” in Section 6 “Consolidated Financial Statements” which are included to our Annual Report for the period ended December 31, 2025.
Regional pay ratios
Due to the global spread of employees over multiple continents, we have also included the above comparison to a regional basis for U.S. employees, EU employees and Japanese employees. Due to the overall higher compensation level in the business sector in the U.S. compared to the EU and Japan, there is a significant difference in the pay ratio when the CEO’s compensation is compared to the median compensation of all employees, compared to employees in the U.S. The following information is provided for reference purposes:
Ratio of non-equity compensation of the median employee compared to the CEO for the year ended December 31, 2025 |
||
|---|---|---|
All employees |
|
12% |
North American employees |
|
16% |
European employees |
|
9% |
Japanese employees |
|
5% |
Rest of the World employees |
|
13% |
Total employment costs (excluding any costs related stock options and RSUs) paid in the year ended December 31, 2025 was split between regions as follows:
Total employment costs in the year ended December 31, 2025 |
||
|---|---|---|
North-America |
|
272 |
Europe |
|
247 |
Japan |
|
16 |
Rest of the World |
|
3 |
Share-based payment ratios
|
|
2021 |
|
2022 |
|
2023 |
|
2024 |
|
2025 |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stock options granted to the CEO |
|
25,000 |
|
25,000 |
|
30,000 |
|
18,279 |
|
15,027 |
||||||
RSUs granted to the CEO |
|
5,700 |
|
5,700 |
|
6,700 |
|
6,762 |
|
– |
||||||
PSUs granted to the CEO |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
5,085 |
||||||
Median stock options granted to employees |
|
981 |
|
900 |
|
600 |
|
306 |
|
221 |
||||||
Median RSUs granted to employees |
|
200 |
|
200 |
|
94 |
|
148 |
|
75 |
||||||
Ratio employee/CEO for stock options |
|
4% |
|
4% |
|
2% |
|
2% |
|
1% |
||||||
Ratio employee/CEO for RSUs1) |
|
4% |
|
4% |
|
1% |
|
2% |
|
N/A |
||||||
Ratio employee RSUs/CEO for PSUs1) |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
|
1% |
||||||
Median number of stock options granted to Non-Executive Directors2) |
|
2,700 |
|
2,700 |
|
1,600 |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
||||||
Median number of RSUs granted to Non-Executive Directors |
|
600 |
|
600 |
|
350 |
|
1,124 |
|
703 |
||||||
Median stock options granted to employees |
|
981 |
|
900 |
|
600 |
|
306 |
|
120 |
||||||
Ratio Non-Executive Directors/employee stock options2) |
|
36% |
|
33% |
|
38% |
|
N/A |
|
N/A |
||||||
Ratio Non-Executive Directors/employee RSUs |
|
33% |
|
33% |
|
27% |
|
13% |
|
11% |
||||||
|
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