Alan Sugar ‘paid himself £390m last year’ – one of largest ever hand-outs to a UK boss

The Apprentice star treats himself to massive dividened from his Amshold company

Lord Alan Sugar (Eamonn M McCormack/Getty Images)

Nice work if you can get it: Lord Alan Sugar reportedly paid himself £390 million last year.

The Apprentice star treated himself to the massive dividend – one of the biggest in British history – from his company Amshold, according to the Daily Mail.

The pay-out - revealed in accounts filed last week - was based on the historic success of the business, which deals in property trading, investment and provision of management services.

The accounts are also said to have shown that the company – which is wholly owned by Lord Sugar – returned a £47 million pre-tax profit on turnover of £79 million in the year up to last June. It currently holds some £271 million worth of property.

But, while the pay-out marks quite the journey from Lord Sugar’s first business selling electronics from the back of a van, it doesn’t make the 74-year-old the best-paid boss ever in the UK.

Last year, Denise Coates, joint chief executive of online gambling firm Bet365, hit the headlines last after receiving £469 million in salary and dividends.

News of Lord Sugar’s pay-out comes shortly after he slammed young people for “sitting around on bean bags all day” instead of working hard.

He said today’s generation preferred to spend their time “flicking elastic bands” rather than grafting to become successful.

The one-time Tottenham Hotspurs chairman, who grew up in a council flat in London’s Hackney, told The Sun: “Young people these days tend to be IT literate and become programmers.

“And companies like Google, Facebook or Twitter have this ‘come and go as you fancy’ idea and they let them sit on bean bags and flick elastic bands at each other.”

And he added: “A lot of people are searching for a cushy number, a cushy job, cushier the better. I have seen this in some of our companies as some young people think, ‘Oh bloody hell, he actually wants me to work. S***’.”

His comments were nicely timed to coincide with the return of The Apprentice, which will begin its 16th series on Thursday.