Compass loyalty bonanza

Four senior directors of Compass Group, the catering company, will today be able to share a windfall of nearly £12m given to them for staying with the company since its merger with Granada in 2000.

The payday amounts to nearly half the share incentive scheme set aside for senior executives to keep the Compass team together. A further 446 executives will share just over £12m among them.

The commitment plan said executives had to invest in Compass shares in July 2000, though they couldutilise shares under options from other incentive plans. If they stayed with the group until 27 January 2002 they would receive shares equal to 40 per cent of their investment.

Under the plan, Michael Bailey, Compass's chief executive, will receive shares worth £4.3m; Francis Mackay, the chairman, gets £3.77m; finance director Andrew Lynch gets £1.91m; and Alain Dupius, the chief executive of the global business, gets £1.86m.

A spokesman defended the awards, saying the plan had been approved by an overwhelming majority of the catering group's shareholders.

It has not been all plain sailing, though. Compass shares have lost 10 per cent of their value in the past 18 months.