HomeBase Profits Boost Top Executive’s Take-Home

HomeBase Inc. Chief Executive Allan P. Sherman took home $1.24 million last year, a 66% increase from 1997 as the Irvine-based home-improvement chain’s profits doubled.

Sherman received a $466,397 bonus last year after receiving no bonus in 1997, according to the company’s annual proxy statement filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sherman, 54, has been chief executive since July, when the company was spun off into a separate publicly traded company from Waban Inc. Before that, he was HomeBase’s president.

His base salary rose 6%, to $544,220. Other compensation, which included loan forgiveness and the value of an interest-free home loan, payments for tax liabilities, and retirement benefits, was unchanged, at $266,910.

Sherman also was granted options to buy 100,000 HomeBase shares, at an exercise price of $6.13. He holds options on 489,125 shares that can be exercised, which were worth $3.3 million at fiscal year end. Sherman also owns 630,628 HomeBase shares, or 1.6% of the company, a stake worth $3.2 million based on Tuesday’s closing stock price.

HomeBase’s profit doubled to $22.4 million in fiscal 1998, which ended Jan. 30. The company’s stock slid 0.8% over the same period, closing the fiscal year at $6.69. It has since fallen another 23%, closing Tuesday at $5.13.