£4m pay award for AAM chief branded 'excessive'

Published on Thursday 11 January 2007 12:01

ABERDEEN Asset Management (AAM) has been attacked by the corporate government watchdog Pirc over its "excessive" £4 million pay packet for chief executive Martin Gilbert.

Ahead of AAM's annual meeting next week, Pirc said that it thought Mr Gilbert's earnings - which included a bonus equivalent to 656 per cent of his salary - was too much.

But the firm, which has offices in the Capital, hit back, saying the payout "reflects a particularly successful year for the company".

The payout came after a bumper year for AAM following the acquisition of Deutsche Asset Management, which more than trebled profits from 25m to 79m.

During the year, however, the firm paid out 15.8m in costs relating to split-capital trust claims.

According to AAM's annual report, Mr Gilbert was paid a 2.6m bonus on top of his basic 435,000 salary, and also received pension contributions of 890,000. The total came to 3.95m - compared to 1.2m the previous year. Pirc is urging its members to vote against AAM's remuneration report at the meeting next week.

It said: "In our view, the rewards were excessive during the year, with the chief executive receiving an annual bonus equivalent to 656 per cent of salary and an LTIP (long-term incentive plan) award of 312 per cent of salary.

"Not only is the annual bonus uncapped, but as per last year, the company breached its 100 per cent of salary limit of LTIP awards."