Marchionne's Fiat compensation fell 27% last year

(Bloomberg) - Fiat SpA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne received $4.77 million (3.47 million euros) in total pay last year, according to the automaker's annual report released today.

Marchionne's 2010 compensation dropped 27 percent from his 2009 pay package, primarily because he received no bonus or incentive pay beyond his base salary and a $584,000 fee tied to Fiat’s executive duties in Switzerland.

His base salary remained unchanged at 3.05 million euros, or $4.2 million, according to current exchange rates. His 2009 pay package included a $1.86 million bonus.

Chrysler has not disclosed Marchionne’s compensation as CEO of the automaker. Fiat controls 25 percent of Chrysler.

The automaker's bankruptcy restructuring - orchestrated by the U.S. government - set a $500,000 salary cap on Chrysler’s top 25 executives.

But Marchionne and other Fiat executives who take on management posts at Chrysler are exempt from the rule.

Under the automaker's bailout, the U.S. government controls 9.2 percent of Chrysler’s shares and the Canadian government owns 2.3 percent. Chrysler has outstanding loans of $5.8 billion from the U.S. and $1.3 billion from Canada.

Marchionne held options on 16.92 million shares of Fiat stock at the end of 2010. The options can be exercised anytime between now and November 2016, Fiat said in the annual report today.

Those shares carry an average exercise, or strike, price of 9.09 euros. But with Fiat shares trading at about 6.68 euros today, those options are under water.

Fiat also awarded Marchionne another 4 million shares last year.