ARM chief to retire after 12 years on top

THE boss of the company that designs the chips which run Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy will leave after 12 years at the helm, writesPeterCampbell.

ARM chief executive Warren East could walk away with shares worth many millions of pounds after transforming the group into a FTSE 100 giant and the world leader in chip design.

On his watch ARM revenues have quadrupled to £577m and profits have soared from £46m to £263m. Now East, who is still only 51, is retiring from the role.

‘Clearly the chief executive has to change at some stage,’ he said.

‘We were making plans for the future, and looking at things that will drive growth into 2020 – by then I will have been in charge for almost 20 years.’

He said the company could ‘lapse into its comfort zone’ if he stayed too long, and wanted to hand over ‘when the business is in a good condition’.

He will not be pursue another executive role ‘soon’. East is sitting on shares in the group which are worth £12.7m at yesterday’s closing price of 896.5p.

He also has shares under a host of longterm reward schemes which would normally take years to mature.

But the remuneration committee, which can decide what farewell package to award him, could give him all of them if it wished.

One batch is worth £1.47m from the company’s long term incentive plan, and the other, which relates to past bonuses, is worth a further £1.25m.

But the size of his pension pot, which has been built up over his 19 years at the group, was not disclosed in the company’s annual report. His basic annual pay for this year is £500,000.

He will be succeeded on June 30 by group president Simon Segars.