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Thursday 12 November 2009

Meet the new boss; same as the old boss

It wasn't all that long ago that eyebrows were raised here about the remunerations package at RBS for Sir Philip Hampton, who somewhat strangely for a non-executive chairman was being given an executive-style pay package of £750,000 salary and £1.5 million in options. This we were told was on the understanding that his job at RBS would be full time.

RBS said at the time: “Philip Hampton’s reward package is designed to align his own interests firmly with the long-term interests of all our shareholders. It reflects the scale and complexity of the job he agreed to do at a critical time for the company.

Some of the remaining 16% minority shareholders are protesting that Sir Philip Hampton has just taken a non-executive board position at Anglo American in addition to his supposedly full-time role at RBS. Of course RBS and UKFI were both consulted about Sir Philip’s new job, but unlike the other shareholders they don't seem to think there is much to bother about.

One might well ask with whose interest Sir Philip is now aligned? Could it be that he sees little value in am option to buy RBS shares at 30p, particularly after the value of those option rights have been watered down by the latest share issue?

The outside shareholders have been sat on, but the people getting hit with 84% of the cost of this bad deal are of course, once again, the tax payers.

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