Carlton chief's salary rises 87%

MICHAEL GREEN, chairman of Carlton Communications, has been awarded an 87 per cent salary increase, making him one of the country's highest-earning company chairmen. His basic salary, which has risen to pounds 400,000 from pounds 278,000, is supplemented by a pounds 120,000 bonus.

The report also revealed that Nigel Walmsley, chief executive of Carlton Television, received a one-off bonus of pounds 250,000 for 'services relating to the company's broadcast interests'.

The company's annual report, published yesterday, says the salary given to Mr Green in 1991 had 'failed to recognise the significant contribution that he makes to the company, the progress the company has made in the last year, and the market level of remuneration of a person of his status within the company.'

Mr Green's bonus was awarded under the terms of a newly-established incentive scheme for directors, linked to performance targets and real growth in earnings per share.

The maximum bonus is 50 per cent of salary if the growth in earnings per share is greater than 20 per cent. In the year to September 1992, directors were awarded 30 per cent of their salary, with earnings up by 16 per cent.

Last year Carlton's profits were ahead by 15 per cent to pounds 102.3m and it had a pounds 108m cash pile. The company, started by Mr Green in the Seventies, increased the dividend for the tenth consecutive year.