Business

He’ll pay the check

So much for the $100 million payday.

Last year, Andrew Hall drew attention far from Wall Street for earning $100 million running Citigroup’s profitable energy-trading business, Phibro. He fought for the cash even after Citigroup took $45 billion in federal bailout funds, and he was slated to collect another $100 million this year.

But he may have met his match in Ray Irani, the longtime, imperious chief of Occidental Petroleum.

Yesterday, Irani scored a coup when he bought Phibro — and Hall — for just $250 million.

Occidental said the 58-year-old Hall and his mangers would likely defer bonuses this year to reinvest into the new trading operations under Occidental’s umbrella.

At Citigroup, Hall and his traders took home 30 percent of their unit’s trading revenue. Had they remained at Citi, they faced a potential loss of their bonuses due to government crackdowns at firms bailed out by Uncle Sam.

Irani, 74, has no qualms about his own oversized paycheck. Last year, he was the nation’s third-highest-paid CEO, with total compensation of $222 million, boosted largely by stock options that soared in value on the coattails of skyrocketing crude oil. Irani’s shares are worth about $588 million.

“Psychologically, there are a number of companies where the chairman-CEO would be expected to make more than its biggest rainmaker,” said energy analyst Peter Beutel of energy research firm Cameron Hanover. “But if a trader is bringing in $1 billion in revenue, it’s not likely to be a big boardroom issue if he’s paid $100 million in bonuses.

“However, the chairman’s bonus also would be boosted, too.”

Occidental has been searching for years for a trading ace to tie together all of its far-flung energy production and services and chemical products.

News of the Phibro deal sent Occidental shares jumping to a new yearly high of $81.49, before settling at $79.54, off 55 cents.