Vodafone chief Gent gets huge bonus

Vodafone paid its chief executive Mr Chris Gent £2

Vodafone paid its chief executive Mr Chris Gent £2.42 million sterling for a year in which it racked up Britain's biggest ever loss.

Mr Gent also received a bonus of Vodafone stock currently worth a total of about £1.6 million. This contrasts with a decision this week by German rival Deutsche Telekom not to grant stock options to board members this year in view of its stock slump.

Mr Gent's salary and bonus have been criticised by shareholders at a time when executives are earning bigger and bigger payouts even as share prices collapse. His payout follows a 44 per cent fall in the Vodafone share price over the past year.

Vodafone's annual report, published today showed that he pocketed £1.19 million in salary and £1.2 million in incentives and other benefits for the year ended March 31st - a year in which Vodafone reported a pre-tax loss of £13.5 billion the biggest in UK corporate history.

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Vodafone also said it had just released another 1.76 million shares to the chief executive. The vast majority of these shares were earned under a much-criticised special bonus scheme put in place after Vodafone's blockbuster acquisition of Germany's Mannesmann at the height of the telecoms boom two years ago.

Mr Gent had already received £5 million in cash in part payment of the special bonus, which was originally worth £10 million. But the value of the second share-based component of the bonus has tumbled.