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New figures today showed that the top directors at blue-blooded investment bank JPMorgan Cazenove saw their total pay double last year — just as it emerged that Caz bankers are in line for multi-million-pound payouts from the expected £950 million sale of their remaining 50% stake in the firm to their US partner.
The highest-paid director at JPMorgan earned £2.8 million last year, up 55% from £1.8 million in 2007, according to annual accounts to 31 December, 2008, just filed at Companies House.
While the top earner was not identified, it is thought to be long-serving chairman David Mayhew, as chief executive Naguib Kheraj only joined the board in October 2008. JPMorgan declined to comment.
Total reumuneration for the six directors was £7.7 million, up from £3.9 million a year earlier.
Caz can justify pay hikes as pre-tax profits rose 6.7% last year to £144.7 million, thanks to booming work from underwriting and rights issues as firms desperately raised cash.
But directors' salaries will be dwarfed by the payouts expected from JPMorgan's buyout, five years after the US investment bank bought an initial 50% stake.
Accounts show Mayhew held 3.6 million ordinary shares at December 2008, plus a further 401,000 restricted shares. Together his stake could be worth £21.2 million — based on reports JPMorgan is set to pay around 530p a share.
Caz group finance director Michael Power had 2.1 million shares, worth roughly £10.9 million, while head of equities Alan Carruthers's 1.3 million shares could be valued at £7.1 million.
