Saga CEO’s pay nears £2m as losses widen
The chief executive of Saga, the insurance, travel and financial services giant, took home almost £2m for its latest financial year, it has been revealed.
Mike Hazell has received a pay packet of almost £1.9m for the London-listed group’s year to 31 January, 2025, according to its annual report – his first full year in the job.
The pay award comes after the CEO took home £760,426 for Saga’s previous financial year, of which he served three months in the role.
Hazell’s remuneration was made up a base salary of £600,000, up from the £180,308 he received for the previous period having only taken on the role at the end of November 2023.
He has also received a bonus of £764,295 and £480,000 through the restricted share plan.
The pay rise comes after Kent-headquartered Saga posted a pre-tax loss of £160.2m for the year to 31 January, 2025, having also lost £123.8m in the prior financial year.
However over the same period, Saga’s revenue increased by four per cent to £588.3m, according to figures filed with the London Stock Exchange.
Its full-year results were ahead of market expectations and also included its net debt falling by seven per cent to £590.5m.
Saga CEO ‘confident’ for the future
At the time, Hazell said: “I’m very pleased with the progress Saga has made over the past 12 months.
“From a trading perspective, we delivered a strong performance, with total underlying profit before tax up 25 per cent and ahead of previous guidance.
“This was driven by the strength of our travel businesses, with especially high levels of customer demand for our differentiated ocean and river cruise offers.
“In addition, we took the significant strategic action necessary to reposition the group for future growth.
“We completed our strategic review, successfully signed a new 20-year insurance broking partnership with wholly owned UK subsidiaries of Ageas SA/NV and agreed the sale of our insurance underwriting business.
“These achievements materially reduce the risk and complexity of the Insurance business going forward and, when combined with our continued strong trading performance, meant that we were able to complete the refinancing of our long-term corporate debt, replacing our 2026 debt maturities with new long-term credit facilities.
“The new facilities provide us with significant financing headroom and flexibility as we move forward.
“Following the completion of these important objectives, our focus has shifted to the long-term growth plans for the group, building on our established businesses by continuing to explore complementary partnerships and unlocking new avenues for growth beyond our current business and product lines.
“All of this will be with our customers’ best interests at the forefront of our thinking.
“I would like to thank all our customers for their continued support, and my colleagues for the outstanding contribution they made towards a successful year.
“The foundations for growth are now in place and we are already making tangible progress.
“By continuing to be a delivery-focussed business, with our customers always front of mind, I am confident that the plans we have in place will step change our financial performance within the next five years, delivering a business with annual underlying profits of at least £100.0m, strong cash generation and leverage of less than 2.0x EBITDA.”