Boohoo boss lands £3.3m windfall thanks to share sale
A boss at high flying online retailer Boohoo has landed a £3.3m windfall after selling thousands of shares in the firm.
Neil Catto, the chief financial officer at the Manchester firm, sold a total of 1,553,398 shares in the business for £2.15 each.
The sale of the shares meant he received £3,339,805. He has held on to a further 626,340 shares.
According to reports in the financial press Mr Catto was paid £2.9million last year – almost twice as much as the sum received by the two chief executives combined.
Neil Catto
The 51-year-old received a 45% pay rise from £2m a year earlier as a result of a £2.4m share-based pay out from a long-term incentive plan.
Mahmud Kamani, 53, and Carol Kane, 51, joint chief executives and founders of Boohoo, were paid £892,701 and £914,115 respectively.
Their pay was more than doubled compared to a year earlier, with each getting a £575,000 bonus.
The firm is one of the biggest success stories of recent years in the North West.
A statement was made to the Stock Exchange on Mr Catto’s sale of his shares.
It read: “boohoo.com, the leading online fashion retailer, announces the following dealing in the company’s ordinary shares of 1 pence each (“Ordinary Shares”) by Neil Catto, chief financial officer. The dealing took place and was notified to the Company on 13 June 2018.
“Neil Catto has exercised an option over 1,553,398 Ordinary Shares at an exercise price of 25.75 pence per Ordinary Share, and has sold these shares at a price of 215.093p per Ordinary Share.
“Following this transaction, Neil has a total interest of 626,340 Ordinary Shares comprising options over 612,034 Ordinary Shares and 14,306 Ordinary Shares held personally, representing approximately 0.053 per cent. and 0.001 per cent. of the Company’s issued Ordinary Share Capital respectively.”
Mr Catto qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young and spent nine years working in their Manchester, Palo Alto and Reading offices.
He was previously finance director of dabs.com plc and has held senior financial positions at BT and The Carphone Warehouse Group.
