Four fat cats share £144m as engineer’s shares soar

FoUR bosses of engineering giant melrose industries have pocketed £36m each in one of the city’s biggest ever payouts.

a £144m pot will be split between executive chairman christopher miller, executive vice-chairman David Roper, chief executive simon Peckham and finance boss Geoff martin.

it is part of a wider bonus pool of £210m, with the rest being shared by 20 other managers.

The payments are part of a long-term incentive plan (lTiP) linked to the value of the company’s shares. When it was agreed in 2012 its shares were about 41p, while they closed last night at 239.25p.

melrose, which specialises in turning around underperforming firms and selling them at a profit, said it returned £3.5bn to shareholders over the period.

But it follows continued criticism of executive remuneration, including from Prime minister Theresa may who has vowed to crack down on fat cat pay.

stefan stern, director of the High Pay centre, said: ‘if the market has failed to value a company properly, executives can benefit in these extraordinary ways by tying awards to the share price. That’s why lTiPs are a flawed structure.’

large pay awards have come under increasing scrutiny with huge sums being paid out.

sir martin sorrell, chief executive of WPP, took home £70m last year, while BP boss Bob Dudley’s £15m payout in 2015 triggered a shareholder revolt at the company’s aGm.

melrose shareholders have been largely supportive of the payout, although 17pc voted against the future lTiP at the company’s aGm

last year, Peckham was paid £987,000, martin got £803,000, miller £549,000 and Roper £548,000. melrose declared a loss of £69.3m while it made revenues of £889m.

The company insisted shareholders were supportive, and the four executives will pay about £70m of tax on the sum.