Cairn raises stakes as Thomson picks up a £1.5m share award

Simon Thomson, who took the helm last year, was awarded more than 513,000 shares, worth £2.887 each, under the group’s 2009 long-term incentive plan.

A spokeswoman for the group said the shares will only pay out if certain performance criteria are met over a three-year period.

Shares in Cairn, which on Wednesday unveiled a £414m bid for Nautical Petroleum, have fallen by around 40 per cent this year. A spokesman for FairPensions, the charity that aims to promote responsible investment, said: “Investors can, quite rightly, be angry when there are huge bonuses going out and they are losing money over a long period of time.”

Deputy chief executive Mike Watts was awarded shares potentially worth around £1.3m, while Jann Brown, the group’s managing director and chief financial officer, received around £1.2m. Exploration director Richard Heaton was awarded shares worth around £720,000. Phil Dolan, director of operations, and Paul Mayland, planning and business development director, each received an award worth around £526,000 and deputy finance director Douglas Taylor is line to receive shares worth more than £330,000.

Thomson, the company’s former legal and commercial director, was appointed as chief executive in July, replacing founder Sir Bill Gammell who became non-executive chairman.

At last month’s annual meeting, 67 per cent of votes were opposed to its remuneration report, which saw Thomson’s total pay rise to £803,311, up from £631,286 in 2010.

Gammell was paid £1.8m, almost twice his remuneration in 2010, including a £1.4m pay-off for “loss of office”. In January the firm withdrew proposals to hand him £2.5m, plus a £1m donation to charity on his behalf, as a reward for completing the sale of 40 per cent of its Indian business to Vedanta.

As a result of the sale, the group said it would return around £2.2 billion to its shareholders.