WPP supremo Sorrell bags shares worth £23 million

WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell has received shares worth almost £23million as part of the advertising giant’s long-term incentive scheme.

The award, which will be confirmed in the annual report for 2013 – due out in the next few weeks – is part of a long-running plan that has now been replaced following shareholder discontent over executive pay at the firm, which counts HSBC, Ford and Vodafone among its clients.

Previously, Sorrell received £17.6million in total remuneration, according to the most recent annual report, for 2012 – up nearly 50 per cent over the previous year. This included a basic salary of £1.3million and a cash-and-shares bonus of £3.1million, with the rest fuelled by the incentive scheme.

In 2012, nearly 60 per cent of investors voted against Sorrell’s pay in what was dubbed ‘the shareholder spring’. Sorrell agreed to a £150,000 pay cut and a cut of more than 20 per cent to his maximum potential bonus.

Sorrell must buy a given number of shares to qualify for the awards, which are based on WPP increasing its market value and raising dividends over five years, from January 2009 to December 2013.

During this period WPP was the seventh-best performer in the FTSE 100 index of top companies, while at the end of the five years it was, at £18.5billion, three times as big as it was when the scheme began, say WPP insiders.

It has resulted in shares worth £22.7million for Sorrell, of which £11.8million is attributed to share price appreciation.

A WPP spokesman said: ‘The award is evidence of superior rewards for executive management in return for superior performance for share owners.’