A retiring senior executive at Persimmon could pocket up to £9.4m from a long-term share scheme as part of a potential total payout of nearly £600m for the housebuilder’s executives – one of the most generous bonus schemes in the City of London.
Nigel Greenaway, who leads the company’s south division, is retiring after nearly 30 years with the firm. He was handed 1.5m shares in 2012 under the 10-year share plan and will receive a portion of his award on a pro-rata basis. Persimmon declined to comment as the award has yet to be determined by its remuneration committee.
At Thursday’s share price, and reducing the exercise price by the dividends paid to date, his payout for a four-year period could amount to £9.4m.
Greenaway will retire at the housebuilder’s annual meeting on 14 April. David Jenkinson has been promoted to managing director with immediate effect, reporting directly to the chief executive, Jeff Fairburn.
News of the board changes came days after it emerged that Persimmon’s former boss Mike Farley, who retired in January 2013 after seven years at the helm and 30 years at the company, collected shares worth nearly £16m at the end of December.
The bonus scheme means that Persimmon’s top 160 managers will be awarded 30m shares worth £585m at Thursday’s share price if they hit a target to return £1.9bn to shareholders over the 10-year period that began in 2011. Rival housebuilder Berkeley Homes also has a generous bonus scheme for its executives.
In a trading update, Persimmon said it built 14,572 homes last year, up 8% from 2014. Revenues climbed 13% to £2.9bn as the average selling price rose 4.5% to £199,100.
Housebuilders came under fire this week when figures from the Local Government Association showed that nearly half a million homes in England and Wales have planning permission but are yet to be built, despite Britain’s housing shortage.
The Guardian revealed last week that the nine biggest housebuilders have enough land to build 615,152 homes. This includes plots with planning permission and those without.
