Nicor Chief Gets $2.5 Million In '08 Compensation

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.

Nicor is a natural-gas distributor and container ship operator based in Naperville, Ill.

Strobel, Nicor's CEO and president since March 2005, was the highest paid among the five company executives listed in the report.

Nicor said it based part of Strobel's compensation on certain company metrics, including the executive's performance and overall corporate financial and operating performance.

For the full-year 2008, Nicor reported a net income drop of 12 percent to $119.5 million, or $2.63 per share, compared with a profit of $135.2 million, or $2.99 per share, in 2007. Revenue rose to $3.78 billion from $3.18 billion a year ago.

Shares of Nicor have fallen in tandem with the plummeting price of natural gas, which has shed about 70 percent of its value from its mid-2008 peak above $13 per 1,000 cubic feet to below $4 per 1,000 cubic feet. Since the September of 2008, shares of Nicor have tumbled more than 40 percent. From the start of the year, Nicor shares fell 18 percent to end the year at $34.12 per share.