FORMER HBOS chief executive Andy Hornby is in line for a multimillion-pound payout from the imminent £2 billion merger of bookmakers Gala Coral and Ladbrokes.
Mr Hornby, 48, chief executive at Coral Retail, has a small share in a management stake in the merged business with an estimated value of anywhere between £50 million and £100m, reports have suggested.
The bookies and bingo hall operator is set to seal its alliance with struggling rival Ladbrokes this week, though its bingo halls are not included.
Mr Hornby joined the business in late 2010 after a spell as chief executive at Alliance Boots, where he appeared in 2009 soon after presiding over the crash of HBOS.
A senior executive role in the merged business would be his first in a listed company since he left HBOS, where according to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards in its 2013 report there was a "colossal failure of senior management".
Mr Hornby took the helm of HBOS in 2006, aged 39, and left after the rescue by Lloyds and £22.5m government bail-out two years later.
If the mooted merger goes ahead, it is thought that the stake held by Gala Coral's management would equate to roughly a five per cent interest in the enlarged company, though it is not known whether they plan to retain or cash in shares.
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