THE highest-paid director at ScottishPower received just £69,000 in 2011 as the company was without a chief for much of the year, accounts filed with Companies House revealed.
This compares to 2010, when outgoing ScottishPower chief executive Nick Horler was paid £1.3 million, including a £840,000 golden goodbye, after quitting as the company suffered falling profits.
In July 2011 ScottishPower, owned by Spanish utility giant Iberdrola, announced Keith Anderson, head of its renewable energy arm, had been appointed as chief corporate officer of the overall ScottishPower business.
However, he was not made a director of ScottishPower Limited until January 2012, the company's latest accounts revealed. The company did not disclose who the highest-paid director was but it is likely to have been one of the non-executives such as former Labour politician Lord Gus Macdonald or entrepreneur Sir Tom Farmer.
A number of Iberdrola executives serve on the ScottishPower board but their salaries are met by other group companies.
In its accounts for 2011, ScottishPower disclosed payments of £7000 to each of the Conservative and Labour Parties, £6500 to the Scottish National Party and £2,000 to Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru. It is understood that these related to events held at party conferences.
ScottishPower made a pre-tax profit of £87.2m for 2011, against £733.2m for 2010.
Bilbao-based Iberdrola, which acquired ScottishPower for £11.6 billion in 2007, has blamed high wholesale gas prices for squeezing margins, while demand has also been falling due to the recession.
ScottishPower recently announced plans to build a £100m headquarters on the site of the old Strathclyde Regional Council headquarters in Glasgow. With a workforce of 1500, it will be the city's biggest single occupier office.
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