SPX Corp.’s board today amended management restricted stock and director compensation programs the day after its chairman and CEO resigned.

SPX Corp.’s board today amended management restricted stock and director compensation programs the day after its chairman and CEO resigned.
The company also hired the consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide to review SPX’s executive compensation program, which many investors and analysts have criticized in the past as overly generous. The review will begin immediately, the company said.
SPX owns the Rochester-based manufacturers SPX Process Equipment–Lightnin Division and Kayex Corp., which employ some 300 workers.
SPX’s board picked the Standard & Poor’s 500 index as a benchmark for the vesting of restricted stock and will institute performance thresholds for the vesting of such awards in 2005 and beyond.
On Thursday, SPX chairman and CEO John Blystone, who has been criticized by Wall Street, resigned citing a desire to spend more time with his family.
Shareholders filed lawsuits earlier this year alleging Blystone and SPX issued misleading statements over stock sales made by the then-CEO before a profit warning in February.
Analysts and investors also have complained over what they called SPX’s confusing accounting practices and generous executive compensation.
The company, based in Charlotte, N.C., has defended its accounting and rejected the charges raised in the lawsuits.

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