BT’s Verwaayen joins UK top earners

NEWS BT boss Ben Verwaayen last year became one of the UK's best paid directors, pulling in around £2.2m in cash with another guaranteed £849,000 worth of shares to come in three years’ time. The figures turned up in the phone giant’s annual report published yesterday. Verwaayen received: a basic £700,000 salary; pension allowance and other benefits of £140,000; housing expenses of £450,000; other benefits worth £35,000 and, oh yes, a cash bonus of £849,000 with another £849,000 worth of shares in a deferred bonus. “Quite frankly, he murdered the targets,” said a BT spokesman, referring to Verwaayen’s bonus. And he has. There has been a 61 per cent earnings per share growth, a 37 per cent drop in customer dissatisfaction and handy ‘free cashflow’ of £1.7bn. It does look like shareholder money well spent. But old fat cat habits die hard. House moving expenses of £200,000 may look a bit stiff but they are a one-off. However, a £250,000-a-year housing allowance for a man who already had a house in the UK looks rather like concealed salary. Included in with his basic pay it would have made him a million pound man, which we can assume is a headline that the BT board wished to avoid. The deferred bonus is interesting. It seems to turn the idea of share options on its head. Verwaayen and other directors will get the stated value worth of shares in three years’ time, whatever the share price, according to a BT spokesman. Other BT directors in the bonus bonanza will receive only half the worth of their cash bonus in shares in three years time. Finance director Ian Livingston was tossed an extra £190,000 to make up for not getting it by staying with Dixons, his previous employer.