M&S: FTSE 100 share price growth helps swell CEO’s pay before cyber attack
The rise in Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) share price before the FTSE 100 giant was hit by a major cyber attack has helped its chief executive’s pay swell to more than £7m, it has been revealed.
Stuart Machin took home just over £7m for the retailer’s latest financial year, up from the £5m he received for the prior 12 months.
The rise in M&S’s share price over the financial year to the end of March this year was a significant reason behind the boosted pay packet as the retailer’s turnaround gained strength.
Shares in M&S started its latest financial year priced at around 260p but ended the 12 months at around 356p – adding millions to the retailer’s market capitalisation.
According to its annual report, the company said almost £2.7m of the CEO’s pay was attributable to the increase in the share price.
Cyber attack to have £300m impact on M&S
However, M&S’s share price suffered a dramatic decline after it revealed in April it was the subject of a major cyber attack, thought to be related to the hacking group Scattered Spider.
It is expected that the attack will blow a £300m hole in its earnings this year and that online disruption will continue throughout June and into July.
Its share price slumped from 411p to a low of 345p but has since started to recover.
M&S said the cyber attack has prompted its remuneration committee to review the performance metrics and targets for the next performance share plan (PSP).
It was reported last month that Machin could face a pay cut of more than £1m for M&S’s current financial year because of the impact the cyber attack has had on the company’s share price.
In May, City AM reported that revenue at M&S had increased by six per cent to £13.8bn during its latest financial year.
However, its pre-tax profit fell by almost 24 per cent to £511.8m over the same period.
M&S also confirmed at the time that it would raise its annual dividend by 20 per cent to 3.6p per share this year.
A M&S spokesperson said: “CEO pay is decided by the board and reflects performance against stretching pre-set targets.
“Almost 90 per cent of Stuart’s pay is linked to performance of the business and the share price – therefore his total pay for FY25 reflects the strong performance and growth of M&S under his leadership over the last three years.
“Over 75 per cent of Stuart’s pay is made up of long-term and deferred share awards, subject to waiting periods and tied to future share price performance.
“This year, our strong performance meant we could make our biggest ever investment in store colleague pay.
“Additionally, over 5,000 colleagues, including store managers, received a bonus. We also returned more value to shareholders with an increased dividend payment.”