Great Portland Estates bosses earn fraction of possible bonuses

Great Portland Estates’ chief executive and chief financial officer saw only modest annual pay rises and only one-quarter of their possible annual bonuses last year, after the developer suffered a tough 12 months in the face of the pandemic. CEO Toby Courtauld and CFO Nick Sanderson’s base salaries rose by the company-wide minimum of 1.5%, against an executive level average of 3.3%, according to GPE’s annual report. This equates to a raise to £612,000 for the year ending 31 March, compared with £603,000 the previous year for Courtauld. Sanderson’s pay rose to £421,000 from £415,000. Chair of the company’s remuneration committee, Wendy Becker, said: “While both executive directors performed very well against their personal objectives, making a significant contribution to mitigating the impact of Covid-19, the committee applied a tougher stance to performance assessment than in previous years.” As a result, Courtauld was given a 70% outturn for “operational excellence”, while Pemberton was given 80%. This translated to bonuses of 23.8% of Courtauld’s salary, and 25.3% of Pemberton’s. This, combined with equivalent award through shared incentive programs, meant that overall the two earned £1.21m and £844,000 respectively. It comes after GPE posted a full-year loss for the first time in four years, with the pandemic dealing a blow to the value of its retail portfolio. Revenue at the West End landlord fell to £88.5m during the year ending March, down 13.7% year-on-year. This led to a £202m pre-tax loss, compared with £51m profit in the previous year. The firm’s portfolio value fell by 8.7% to £2.5bn, driven by a 27.3% decline in retail. The value of its offices portfolio was down 1.7%. To send feedback, e-mail alex.daniel@eg.co.uk or tweet @alexmdaniel or @EGPropertyNews