Sausage-skin maker Devro's executive directors saw their pay packages cut last year, after the takeover candidate's profits were driven down by soaring energy costs and adverse foreign exchange movements.
None of the trio, including chief executive Graeme Alexander, received an annual bonus, which helped cut total directors' pay from £923,000 in 2005 to £820,000 last year.
Alexander was paid £293,000 in 2006, including benefits in kind worth £27,000, down from £336,000 in 2005, when he got a £52,000 bonus. Finance director John Neilson received £190,000, down from £218,000, while executive director Trevor Morgan was paid £178,000, down from £205,000.
The trio nevertheless enjoyed gains totalling £700,000 on the company's various share plans. Alexander made a gain of £196,964 on a deferred bonus scheme and a further gain of £166,495 on the vesting of awards under a 2003 share plan.
In 2006, Devro saw pre-tax profit fall 37% to £16.3m as revenue edged up less than 1% to £153.5m. Devro said "significant increases" in energy costs, combined with adverse currency effects from the Czech koruna, had a substantial effect on profit.
In January, Devro said it had received a takeover offer from an unspecified bidder, adding nearly a month ago that due diligence with the unnamed suitor was "largely complete".
It is understood the likely acquirer is Irish racing tycoon John Magnier, who is reported to have enlisted close associate Denis Brosnan - former head of Kerry Group - as part of his plan to take over the company. Magnier's Swiss investment vehicle, Acomita, has a 14% stake and is understood to be offering 150p per share for the remainder of the group, valuing it at £244m.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article