Former Persimmon chief in £16m payout
HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon has been embroiled in controversy after details of a former chief executive’s payout were made public over the weekend.
The Sunday Times has reported that the former boss of the York-based company has received an “astonishing” £16m, just over two years after leaving the company.
Former chief executive Mike Farley left the company in April 2013, but was part of an executive incentive scheme which was put into place six months prior to his departure.
Under the scheme, Persimmon’s top 140 executives were pledged hundreds of millions of pounds of stock options if they hit targets to pay out £1.9bn to shareholders over 9 years.
Mr Farley was granted 966,400 shares despite the scheme being introduced only months before his departure, which had already been announced.
Stock options worth £212m, based on Persimmon’s closing share price last week will be distributed between Mr Farley, his replacement Jeff Fairburn and two other top executives, Mike Killoran and Nigel Greenaway in 2017 and 2021 – if the £1.9bn return is made.
The Sunday Times said that the company’s share price has tripled since his departure. Persimmon skipped Morrisons as the most-valuable listed business in Yorkshire and now has a market capitalisation of £5,830m.
