BT has dramatically cut chief executive Gavin Patterson’s pay, as the telecoms giant struggles to recover from a damning accounting scandal in its Italian business that caused it to issue a profit warning and sent shares tumbling.
According to the group’s annual report published on Thursday, Gavin Patterson took home £1.35m for the most recent year, a dramatic reduction from the £5.28m he was handed last year.
His benefits package was cut from £57,000 to £53,000 but his base salary was nudged 2.5 per cent higher to £993,000.
Earlier this month BT said that it was slashing 4,000 jobs over the next two years, as it struggles to recover from that accounting scandal and a subsequent profit warning, while also navigating generally rocky markets.
It posted fourth-quarter revenue of £6.12bn, up 10 per cent, and adjusted earnings of £2.07bn, up 2 per cent, which was roughly in line with forecasts.
Adding to the company’s recent woes, BT in March was slapped with a record fine of £42m by regulator Ofcom and agreed to pay rivals as much as £300m, after it admitted to breaching rules by failing to compensate other operators over delays to installing Ethernet lines.
