WH Smith’s shares bonus scheme backed by pension association

WH
Smith has won support from the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) for
an unusual incentive scheme that could see the retailer’s top 40 executives
share a £20m shares bonus.

The
NAPF advised its members to back the scheme – which could net WH Smith’s chief
executive, Kate Swann, £3.9m – ahead of an extraordinary meeting this month.

The
association said: "While there is a high potential reward to participants,
it would require significant and exceptional performance for even threshold
targets to be achieved."

Under
the scheme, the company’s 40 top employees can invest up to 100 per cent of
their gross salary in shares in return for a potential payback of up to five
times their initial investment if the retailer hits its earnings targets over
the next three years.

WH
Smith shares, currently trading at 307.5p, must hit 557p for executives to
qualify for the maximum payout.

For more on WH Smith’s people policies, see
tomorrow’s edition of Personnel Today

By Daniel Thomas

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