M&C Saatchi pocketed £3 million in 2013

Maurice Saatchi (Getty Images)

The founders of M&C Saatchi earned close to £3 million a head in pay, benefits and share awards in 2013.

Chief executive David Kershaw and fellow directors Maurice Saatchi, Bill Muirhead and Jeremy Sinclair have “shared equally in a £9.4 million gain” from shares as part of the advertising agency group’s long-term incentive plan.

That gain, worth £2.35 million each, came on top of basic pay of about £420,000 a head. The directors each hold a 6.7% stake and received another windfall in January when the company returned £21 million to shareholders after selling 75.1% of media-buying arm Walker Media.

Sinclair defended the sale of Walker Media, whose clients include Marks & Spencer.

“It is our hope that our remaining 24.9% will be worth more than the 100% of Walker we used to own,” Sinclair explained, noting that M&C Saatchi’s share of profits from subsidiary Talk PR have increased by fourfold since it reduced that stake to 51% in 2010. Shares in Soho-based M&C Saatchi have more than doubled in three years.