PERSIMMON boss Jeff Fairburn has announced he is setting up a private charity “to benefit wider society over a sustained period of time” after receiving a colossal £132 million bonus.
But Mr Fairburn gave no definitive details on how much off the bonus he would be giving away, indicating that his wish was that the matter had remained private.
Having previous defended the scale of the bonus, Mr Fairburn this morning issued a statement saying that “I did not seek these levels of award nor do I consider it right to keep them entirely for myself”.
READ MORE: Persimmon chief executive Jeff Fairburn defends "obscene" £110m bonus
In December, Persimmon chairman Nicholas Wrigley and Jonathan Davie, chair of the remuneration committee resigned after failing to cap an incentive plan which was introduced in 2012 and linked to the growth of the business.
This growth was fuelled in part by the Government’s Help to Buy scheme, and Mr Fairburn and his directors have come under increasing pressure from investors over the scale of the bonuses.
The payout, which could see £600m shared among the management team, comes in the form of share options. In addition to Mr Fairburn’s £132m, Mike Killoran, finance chief, picked up £86m and Dave Jenkinson, group managing director, £48m.
“I recognise and profoundly regret that Persimmon’s strong performance over the last few years is being eclipsed by the controversy surrounding the 2012 LTIP award,” said Mr Fairburn.
“Persimmon’s success as a business and the uncapped nature of the Scheme has meant that the value of these awards has become very large.
“Once it became apparent that our outperformance would lead to a very significant award for me, I made plans to use a substantial proportion of the total to support the charities that are particularly important to me and my family.
READ MORE: Persimmon chief executive Jeff Fairburn defends "obscene" £110m bonus
“But, in what might be considered to be an old-fashioned approach, I believed that this was a personal matter and that I would be able to do this privately. It’s now clear that this belief was misplaced and so I am making my plans public and recognise that I should have done so sooner.”
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