Rose bags 28 per cent hike in pay packet
STUART Rose, executive chairman of Marks & Spencer, collected a share windfall of £288,000 last year, boosting his total income by 28 per cent.
Rose collected £1.76m for the year ending March 2009, up from £1.38m a year earlier.
Although Rose’s basic salary was frozen at £1.13m and he received no bonus for the second year in a row, he received 473,000 free shares from the long-term bonus plan for 2004-05, which matured last year.
This came from shares he was awarded in 2005 and vested last summer, reflecting a three-year period before the recession when trading at M&S was much healthier . The share reward takes his total stake in the company to 1.22m shares, currently worth some £3.5m.
However, none of the other directors received a bonus because they failed to hit their performance targets.
Executive director of general merchandise Kate Bostock missed out on her bonus after missing performance targets. Bostock was only promoted to the board in March 2008. Her pay last year was £892,000.
The rise in Rose’s overall payout could spark anger from shareholders at the group’s annual meeting next month.
M&S posted £1bn in profits for the first time in a decade in the 12 months to March 2008, but a year later this slumped to £604m as the retail giant suffered because of the recession.
Total pay to all executive and non-executive directors – as well as those who retired from the board last year – reached £6.5m. This compares to £4.2m in the previous year.