CABLE & WIRELESS, the telecoms giant, spent £7.2 million on salaries, bonuses and other payments to new and departing boardroom executives last year — a rise of 25 per cent.
The total bill, which comes as the company has been cutting hundreds of jobs, included a £612,500 payout to Kevin Loosemore, the former chief operating officer who quit after one year in the role.
He left C&W in March after rejecting an offer to run its international operations when Francesco Caio, chief executive, opted to take a tighter grip on the company’s British arm.
The group’s annual report also revealed the pay package of Harris Jones, the former boss of T-Mobile UK who replaced Mr Loosemore. His total pay for the year to March 31 totalled £466,161, including a bonus of £197,137.
Charles Herlinger, finance director, was given £408,487 to compensate for having to relocate to the UK from Munich, where he was deputy chief financial officer of Siemens, the German industrial giant.
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Mr Caio took home a package of £1.9 million, including a £195,907 payment to cover, among other things, the cost of commuting between Italy and the UK. He was also awarded 1.9 million share options and more than 83,000 shares.
C&W, which last year had a stormy annual meeting when a fifth of investors voted against the remuneration policy for its new board, also revealed plans to reduce the share awards and options paid to management for “median” performances.
At present, directors can be awarded shares worth up to 40 per cent of their respective salary. Under the plan, this would be reduced to 33.3 per cent.