Outrage as car dealer boss gets a bumper £29m bonus
THE female boss of a second-hand car dealership has been awarded a bumper £29million bonus.
Webuyanycar.com chief Avril PalmerBaunack was yesterday celebrating the huge payout. But not everybody is happy.
In leaked emails, one former male colleague, who resented the payout, remarked he might have been better off if he had “a pair of t*** like Avril”.
The bonus, which is nearly 60 times her £525,000 annual salary, is the result of an incentive plan drawn up four years ago to grow the parent company.
It is linked to an increase in the share price.
On top of this, she will also receive an eight per cent increase to her basic salary.
The company, which is owned by British Car Auctions, defended the huge payout by saying it needed to pay a “competitive” rate.
Cynical
As BCA executive chairman, Ms Palmer-Baunack is believed to be the highest-ever paid female company boss of a London Stock Exchangelisted company.
It is not the first time she has received a multi-million pound bonus.
She defended a £7.1million payout from the company in 2015, a year after she joined, by saying: “Anyone who says they don’t want money is talking b ******* .
“We all want to earn money for our family.”
The Edinburgh-born boss is married to a German executive at Volkswagen and has a grown-up son and daughter.
However, not everyone concerned with the company, which auctions about 750,000 used cars in the UK a year, is over the moon about Ms Palmer-Baunack’s £29million bonus payment.
She faces the prospect of an embarrassing revolt from shareholders at a meeting this week. Her latest bonus has also been criticised by City experts. In a report to investors, influential advisory firm Glass Lewis called it “exceptionally disproportionate”.
Large payouts for company bosses may become fewer in future.
Last year Theresa May announced plans to censure stock market-listed companies which drew exceptional levels of complaints from shareholders over bosses’ salaries.
Ms Palmer-Baunack is the former chairman of Stobart Group which is a key infrastructure and support services company.
The 54-year-old has in the past been vocal about women in the workplace.
She said she was “very cynical” about the existence of “glass ceilings” – the term used to describe the limits on the career opportunities for women in big corporations.
She explained: “If you get up and do a good day’s work, you are respected for it.”
The mother of two began her career at a car rental desk in Kennington, south London, where she said she discovered “how it was all about upselling everything”.