Gérard Le Fur, who was ousted as the Sanofi-Aventis ceo last week after less than two years on the job, could receive up to $11.3 million this year from the drugmaker before leaving in December, The Financial Times writes.

Regulatory filings show the board agreed in February to pay Le Fur a “termination benefit” equal to 24 months of his last total remuneration in the event of his “removal from office,” the paper writes. If he receives 11 months’ pay this year at the same rate as his 2007 salary of about $3.8 million, a further 24 months would give him nearly $11.3 million before stock options, pension benefits and his future earnings as a scientific adviser to management.

With Sanofi set to publish the “financial conditions” of its reshuffle shortly, such a large settlement could spark more criticism of executive pay by French politicians and anger from shareholders who have seen the drugmaker’s stock’s value fall by one-fifth in the past year, the FT notes. Last week, Sanofi hired Glaxo’s Chris Viehbacher to replace Le Fur (back story).

Last year, a public backlash over the issue of golden parachutes prompted the French government to introduce legislation designed to link severance pay to performance. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who has lashed out at “rogue bosses” and preached the need for a “moral capitalism,” has made executive pay one of the main issues of his EU presidency, and is hoping to win agreement for a directive that would limit payouts for failure, the FT writes.

Le Fur’s final settlement at Sanofi-Aventis may ultimately be reduced because $1.9 milllion of his 2007 pay was performance-related, primarily linked to the group’s adjusted earnings per share relative to the world’s top 12 pharmaceutical companies, according to the FT.

If the board considers his departure “involuntary retirement”, he receives only 20 months of his final salary, reduced to 12 months if judged a “voluntary retirement.” But the board must decide whether he is still eligible for 200,000 stock options he was awarded last December, exercisable at about $88 after 2011 and valued at $3.4 million.

Le Fur owned 42,868 Sanofi shares outright last year, and held a further 655,000 unexercised from previous schemes, the FT writes, adding that, in addition to the standard industry pension, his contract allows him to receive a retirement annuity based on the average of his last three years’ compensation and capped at 37.5 per cent of his final salary.

In a further cost, the board is likely to have to at least match the current package given Viehbacher, who earned $800,000 last year, with a $4.5 million retention package in stock options.

Source: The Financial Times