Hammond paid £200,000 less as Forth cuts bonuses

Published on Thursday 2 April 2009 21:45

CHARLES Hammond, the chief executive of ports and property group Forth Ports, had more than £200,000 cut from his pay and benefits package last year.

The company's annual report, published yesterday, shows that Hammond was given a 40,000 salary rise in 2008 but his total remuneration still dropped below 1 million.

According to the report and accounts, Hammond's basic salary in 2008 went up to 460,000. However his bonus, partly calculated on the value of the group's property assets, fell from 420,000 in 2007 to 299,000.

A payment for other benefits, including a sum in lieu of company pension contribution, fell from 253,670 to 132,486.

The fall was partly explained by the fact that 200,000 "special bonuses" were paid in 2007 to Hammond, finance director Wilson Murray and Perry Glading, managing director of Port of Tillbury.

Hammond's total remuneration in 2008 was 891,486, down from 1,093,670 in 2007.

Murray's basic salary went up to 285,000 from 260,000, but his overall remuneration fell to 558,921 from 667,949. Glading's basic salary was boosted by 30,000 to 280,000 but his overall remuneration fell from 573,146 to 486,070.

In the accounts, the company's remuneration committee said that if its bonus criteria had been applied, director bonuses would have been payable in full even though the group took a 222m writedown on the value of its property assets in 2008. Instead, the committee took the decision to cut the bonuses.

Last month Forth reported a 30.7m pre-tax loss for 2008.