If you own a large retailer and you’re trying to make your future son-in-law CEO, offering him a potential £100m bonus is probably not the best way to get other shareholders on board.The British owner of the Sports Direct and House of Fraser chains said earlier in August that Mike Ashley, founder and majority shareholder, was preparing to hand over the CEO role to 31-year-old Michael Murray, the man engaged to his daughter Anna.
Frasers shares have never achieved this level before. The closest they came was at less than £10 — at 922p in April 2014. Frasers executives have typically had low base salaries, with the potential top-ups through big share-based incentives. But the same can’t be said for Murray: the group also proposed a £1m a year salary. Even if it deducts this from a £100m payout, his annual salary would still be more than that of Steve Rowe, the CEO of Marks & Spencer, a retailer with almost three times the sales of Frasers.