Persimmon’s board ignored a warning six years ago that its now-infamous bonus scheme would lead to undeserved payouts worth hundreds of millions of pounds but chose to ignore them, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The FTSE 100 housebuilder sacked its chief executive Jeff Fairburn on Wednesday after he refused to hand back another chunk of the £75m he was given through the company’s controversial long-term incentive plan, which was devised in 2012.
Persimmon has admitted the lack of a cap on payouts, combined with a fourfold increase in its share price, has resulted in the bonuses being “significantly larger and paid earlier than might reasonably have been expected” at the time the plan was approved.
