NEW YORK — Michael Buckley will be eligible for a compensation package in excess of $1.2 million after he assumes his position as president of True Religion Apparel next week.
According to documents the Los Angeles premium jeanswear company filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Buckley has signed a three-year employment contract assuring a base salary of $400,000 a year. Buckley’s 2006 bonus will be a percentage of his base salary, based upon the company’s earnings before interest and taxes for the year. The bonus is capped at $800,000 for EBIT of more than $69 million. No bonus will be granted if EBIT is under $36.8 million, as is the case with the company’s other executives.
The contract also grants Buckley 100,000 shares of restricted common stock, worth about $1.76 million based on the stock’s closing price of $17.58 a share on Thursday. One-third of the shares will be vested in each year of the contract.
Buckley is required to relocate to California from New York within a year and is entitled to a maximum reimbursement of $100,000 for the costs of the move. Until Buckley moves to California, he will be granted $5,000 a month for commuting costs, and will be entitled to a monthly allowance of $1,200 for an automobile.
Jeffrey Lubell, the company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer, signed a new three-year employment agreement in January that upped his base salary to $500,000 from $400,000 and set a maximum bonus of $5 million. In 2005, Lubell received $1.91 million in salary and bonus, which represented 1.8 percent of the company’s $102.5 million in sales for the year.