WPP plc's (LON:WPP) chief executive Martin Sorrell has received £41.6mln worth of shares in the final payout from the advertising giant’s controversial incentive plan.
The Leadership Equity Acquisition Plan (LEAP) reward scheme, which has made payments from 2012 to 2016, has seen Sorrell's total remuneration over the period reach more than £200mln. Through LEAP alone, Sorrell has earned £163mln over the past five years.
Sorrell has been consistently ranked among the highest paid chief executives on the FTSE 100.
However, WPP said Sorrell’s last payment from LEAP was 34% down on the £62.78mln he received last year.
LEAP was discontinued in 2013 and replaced with a more stringent plan following shareholder revolt over Sorrell’s sizeable pay package, though payouts from the scheme continued.
In 2014 about 30% of shareholders rejected Sorrell’s pay package and the following year more than 20% voted against his remuneration.
Last year about 33% of shareholders rejected his total remuneration of £70.4mln for the fiscal year ended April 2016, which marked one of the largest payouts in UK corporate history.
At the time Sorrell defended his pay, saying the risks he’s taken to grow the business over means he deserves a reward.
“WPP capitalised at £1mln (at its start in 1985),” Sir Martin said at the Advertising Week Europe event last April.
“Today it is capitalised at £21bn. I’m not a Johnny come lately who picked a company up and turned it round (for a big pay day). If it was one five-year plan and we buggered off, fine (to criticise my pay). Over those 31 years … I have taken a significant degree of risk. (WPP) is where my wealth is. It is long effort over a long period of time.”