John Menzies directors cash in on £7m windfall

By ERIKKA ASKELAND
Published on 12/04/2012 00:55

DIRECTORS of John Menzies enjoyed a bumper year of share awards, bonuses and incentive plan payouts last year.

In addition to one-off share awards totalling more than £7 million, directors Paul Dollman and Craig Smyth enjoyed increases in salary and benefits.

Dollman, the group’s finance director, made £552,000 in salary, benefits, bonus and pension pot contributions.

He also received £205,000 after exercising options made available under previous long-term incentive plans.

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Smyth, who has been overseeing substantial growth of the aviation business since 2007, was paid a total of £583,000, a £23,000 increase on 2010 and which included a £231,000 bonus for meeting “stretch” ebit targets during the year. He too exercised options worth £38,000.

However, David McIntosh, the head of the group’s flat- lining distribution business saw his pay fall after missing out on a bonus worth up to 60 per cent of his salary, bringing his total pay to £351,000, down slightly from £346,000.

But last month, the bosses were also awarded shares worth millions as a result of a 2009 performance share plan that had vested after three years.

The one-off incentive was planned when the firm’s shares were languishing around 43p. But last month, the value of the awards based on the share price had grown 345 per cent. Both Dollman and Smyth were awarded the maximum 450,000 shares, while McIntosh was awarded 337,500 shares.

Dollman and Smyth each received shares worth £2.6 million as a result of surpassing targets set out in the 2009 plan, which was designed to offer them the “opportunity to benefit from the potential success of the company”.

McIntosh also received a £2m share award. Both Dollman and Smyth sold 272,000 of their shares immediately at 575p, raising £1.56m apiece, while McIntosh disposed of 209,387 shares worth £1.2m.

Last month, the company confirmed that its aviation services arm had overtaken newspaper distribution as its biggest profits driver for the first time in its 179-year history.

Aviation provides baggage and cargo handling services to clients including British Airways, EasyJet and Flybe and operates from 131 airports in 29 countries and employs about 17,000 people.

Having grown 31 per cent in the year to the end of 2011, the firm has predicted that this trend will continue at a slower, but still healthy, rate of 10-15 per cent this year.

The distribution business, which reported flat profits last year, handles five million newspapers and 2.1 million magazines every day, with deliveries to more than 25,000 customers. It employs 4,000 staff at 39 sites in the UK.