Here's Where Some of That Mountain of Corporate Cash is Going

There have been plenty of stories in the past few weeks about the $2 trillion in cash that US corporations are sitting on. The money is not being invested in hiring or plant expansion, and it’s not being used a lot for acquisitions. It’s not going to huge increases in dividends, nor are stock buybacks figuring in much. But it’s not just sitting there.

Gulfstream, the division of General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) that makes business jets is hiring, and ramping up to build more of its large-cabin, long-range planes. The company plans to spend $500 million tooling up is Savannah, Georgia, plant and adding 1,000 new jobs over the next seven years. The first jobs will be technologists and engineers, followed by manufacturing and service workers.

According to Bloomberg, a survey by another aviation-related company, Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), indicates that the recovery in the market for business jets is set to occur in late 2011 and get better in 2012.

That’s good news for those captains of industry who have waited on the sidelines to get their own rides. And it’s not as if these folks have exactly been suffering. The Wall Street Journal has posted a list of the CEO pay at 456 US companies with revenue of at least $4 billion as of the company’s most recent fiscal year proxy statement.

The top five are Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ: LMDIA) CEO Gregory Maffei with total compensation of about $87 million, Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) CEO Larry Ellison with nearly $69 million, Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s (NYSE: OXY) Ray Irani with about $52 million, CBS Inc. (NYSE: CBS) chief Les Moonves with almost $40 million, and Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) boss Philippe Dauman with almost $44 million.

Now chances are that these guys already have their own corporate jets, but think of the executives that are struggling along on a mere $1 or $1 million. If a company has a spare $58 million sitting in its cash hoard, these underpaid folks can at least fly in style on a Gulfstream G650. For the budget conscious, a Gulfstream G250 is a mere $24 million.

Use of a company plane either for business or personal travel is a perquisite for company executives. In 2009 CBS’s Moonves, for example, received $54,577 in transportation benefits including use of the company plane and ground transportation. The only good news for those of us who fight the crowds at US airports is that the perk is taxable.

Paul Ausick