Bain unloads Coats shares worth pounds 1.5m

NEVILLE Bain, chief executive of Britain's largest textiles concern, Coats Viyella, has sold shares in the company worth nearly pounds 1.5m.

He exercised share options granted to him when he joined Coats from the sweets and fizzy drinks group Cadbury Schweppes in 1990.

Mr Bain exercised options on 1.1 million shares and sold 900,000 in the market. He paid 105p a share to exercise the options and sold for 267p, netting a profit of pounds 1.46m.

A spokesman for the company said: 'I do not know what he is doing with the money but Mr Bain is a prudent man and I am sure he will spend wisely.'

Annual accounts for 1993 also reveal that Mr Bain received a 35 per cent pay increase last year.

Most of the increase came from bonuses. The performance-related element of Mr Bain's 1993 salary package was pounds 166,000, compared with pounds 17,000 the previous year.

His total remuneration was pounds 647,000, up from pounds 481,000. The company's contribution to Mr Bain's pension scheme was unchanged at pounds 129,000.

Coats raised its pre-tax profits 38 per cent to pounds 150m for the year to 31 December. Since Mr Bain arrived in 1990 taxable profits have increased by 80 per cent and earnings have tripled.

Keith Hopkins, chief executive of the chemicals group Croda, also received a big pay increase in 1993. He earned pounds 211,000, 47 per cent above his 1992 package.