Glynn awarded £491,000 bonus despite online decline

Ladbrokes’ annual report has revealed that CEO Richard Glynn has been awarded a bonus of almost £500,000 despite seemingly moving further away from his target of doubling the operator’s share price by 2015.

Glynn has been awarded £327,000 in cash and a further £164,000 in deferred shares in addition to his basic annual salary of £580,000. The company announced that it had exceeded the bonus plan threshold, but no awards were made to Ladbrokes’ directors under the performance share plan as the company failed to meet targets for total shareholder return and earnings per share. According to the operator’s annual report released yesterday, 70% of total bonus opportunity is based on financial performance, with the remaining 30% based on performance against individual objectives approved by the remuneration committee at the start of the financial year. No other details were given.

Ladbrokes’ full year results, announced in February, showed strong growth in mobile with a 174% year-on-year increase in net revenues, but profit from online activities has dropped 12.3% year-on-year, down to £55m, with net gaming revenues falling 3.5%. Slight growth in retail, with net revenues up 2.1%, helped the group to a 0.4% growth in profits for the year.

The Daily Telegraph reports this morning that should Glynn successfully double the company’s share price to 297p by 2015, a plan he named Project Galvanize upon joining the business, he will receive a £12m payout. Despite this, the company’s share price currently stands at 156.7p, down from 159.6p when Glynn joined on 22 April 2010.

Despite leaving the company in August last year, former CFO Brian Wallace was awarded an annual bonus of £494,000 and £56,000 under the performance share plan ““ the only employee to receive such a payment ““ for a total salary of £1.135m for the year, higher than Glynn’s total £1.23m pay.