Vandevelde and Holmes in line for £6.5m windfall

Luc Vandevelde and Roger Holmes, the ousted chairman and chief executive of Marks and Spencer, are sitting on a £6.5m windfall thanks to a number of share options.

Luc Vandevelde and Roger Holmes, the ousted chairman and chief executive of Marks and Spencer, are sitting on a £6.5m windfall thanks to a number of share options.

Following their departure, M&S said that Mr Vandevelde would receive a 12-month pay-off in shares worth more than £590,000, while Roger Holmes would receive £820,000 for being forced out. However, Mr Vandevelde and Mr Holmes are now free to exercise existing share options that they have been granted by the company at any time within the next 12 months. This means that Mr Vandevelde could exercise a total of 4,684,976 share options producing a gain at yesterday's closing price of £4.65m. Mr Holmes is sitting on a total of 1,467,243 share options, which last night were worth £1.82m.

The options were granted over a period of time and at various exercise prices which range for Mr Vandevelde from 265p to 350p and for Mr Holmes from 195p to 350p.

Three tranches of options granted to Mr Vandevelde totalling 3,984,674 share options were granted at 261p producing a profit last night of £4.18m. The most profitable share options for Mr Holmes was a group of 871,794 shares options granted at 195p which last night were worth £1.49m.