Marks & Spencer hands bosses £22m pay awards

The high street stalwart Marks & Spencer handed its outgoing chairman Sir Stuart Rose a pay packet worth £8m last year, although the sum paled against the almost £14m spent on luring Marc Bolland to the group.

M&S revealed the vast sums spent on executive compensation for the financial year ended 2 April in its annual report, published yesterday.

Mr Bolland was offered a basic salary of £894,000. In addition he was handed a compensation package worth £2.6m in cash and shares, which made up for the sum he would have pocketed had he stayed on in his previous job as chief executive of the rival supermarket chain Morrisons.

This was bolstered by the award of 2.5 million share options related to performance and shares he had forefeited after leaving his former employment. His long-term incentive scheme was valued at close to £9.5m based on yesterday's closing price.

Mr Bolland was appointed chief executive of M&S in May last year, and the company said his remuneration package was "consistent with the structure for executive directors" at the group. About 16 per cent of investors failed to back the remuneration packages at last year's annual meeting.

He could earn as much as £13.8m should the company hit performance targets and trigger further awards. The report shows Mr Bolland also received a relocation payment of £167,000 "made under the normal terms of the company's relocation plan".

In the report, M&S chairman Robert Swannell praised Sir Stuart Rose for an "immaculate handover" as chairman. Sir Stuart stepped down as executive chairman last summer but remained non-executive chairman until Mr Swannell joined in January.

Sir Stuart's remuneration package included pay, benefits and a bonus worth £2.77m. The total package marked a 6 per cent increase over the previous year but with his share package his remuneration was worth up to £8m based on the current share price.

He was awarded 1.2 million long term performance options valued at £4.5m and a further £915,000 from a share plan that vested last year.

M&S is set to unveil a new executive pay structure later this week.