Every
employee at Saga, the holiday and insurance group for the over-50s, is to
receive £1,000 for every year they have worked at the company, after it was
sold in a management buyout for £1.35bn.
The
average payout for staff is estimated at about £5,000. But 37 of the
3,200-strong workforce have been at the company for more than 20 years. Staff
will also be given shares in the company under an employee share scheme.
The
deal will see 55-year-old Roger De Haan,
the son of the man who founded Saga in 1948, step down as chairman
and sell his 100 per cent stake in the business to a management buyout team
funded by Charterhouse, the private equity specialists.
Charterhouse
saw off fierce competition from a number of rival private equity houses and was
selected because of its empathy with the Saga business.
This
comes soon after news of a bumper pay-out for staff at car insurer Admiral. The
move, which followed the flotation last month, landed workers at call centres
in Cardiff and Swansea
average share windfalls of £39,000. Even the most junior workers were due to
receive at least £10,000.
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