- Five successive chief executives shared a total of £15.2m
- This number will swell to as much as £22.6m by time takeover is completed
- Critics said public would be ‘outraged’ by huge sums given poor level of service
The bumper pay handed to Royal Mail bosses in the years leading up to its proposed takeover by Daniel Kretinsky is laid bare by the Mail today.
Five successive chief executives shared £15.2m between the delivery group’s privatisation in 2013 and the end of its latest financial year in March 2024, according to analysis by this newspaper.
This number will swell to as much as £22.6m by the time the deal to sell Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services (IDS) to the billionaire known as the Czech Sphinx for £3.6billion is completed.
Critics said the public would be ‘outraged’ by the huge sums given the poor level of service they have received.
The revelations come after documents this week showed bankers, lawyers and other advisers working on the deal will share a fees of £146m.
Bumper pay: Moya Greene and Martin Seidenberg are two of the executives who have profited
The IDS board – led by chairman Keith Williams – stunned the City and Westminster last month when it backed a £3.6billion offer from Kretinsky, which will see Royal Mail fall into foreign hands for the first time since it was set up by Henry VIII in 1516.
The proposed takeover – which still requires regulatory approval – comes just over a decade after Royal Mail was listed on the stock market in a major privatisation deal by the Coalition government. The privatisation soon turned sour, however, as the firm was hammered by a collapse in letter-writing and damaging strikes.
Royal Mail has blamed its financial performance on delays to reform of the Universal Service Obligation, which mandates deliveries nationwide six days a week at a fixed price and costs the business up to £675m a year. But unions claim the crisis has been brought on by ‘mismanagement’ at the top, leaving the firm vulnerable to a foreign takeover.
Running Royal Mail has proved lucrative. The Mail can reveal that IDS chief executive Martin Seidenberg was paid £1.5m last year and could land another £7.4m by the time the takeover completes.
That includes up to £5.6m in potential share awards and the value of his stake in the firm plus his salary and bonuses for this financial year. His predecessor Simon Thompson, who was boss for just two years, earned a total of £1.9m. He followed in the footsteps of Rico Back, who also quit after a two-year stint that was marred by an ongoing battle with unions. He was paid nearly £1.2m plus £450,000 in lieu of working his notice, but did not receive any bonuses on leaving.
Stuart Simpson, who did the job on an interim basis after Back left and before Thompson took over, was paid £462,000. Canadian Moya Greene was appointed in 2010. Her tenure included the privatisation of the postal service in 2013, after which she earned £8.7m plus a near £1m pay-off when she stepped down.
Andrew Speke at the High Pay Centre think-tank said: ‘Given the service the public have received from Royal Mail, most people would be outraged to hear of these huge sums being paid out to failing bosses.’
How top brass scooped £15m in lead-up to Czech Sphinx takeover – and there’s more in the post!
