Rightmove boss Nick McKittrick has pocketed millions through selling shares in the company that he helped to create.
Chief operating officer Peter Brookes-Johnson has also cashed in by selling shares which like McKittrick’s were awarded at nil cost.
McKittrick, Rightmove’s CEO, raised £7.4m after exercising his right on Friday to acquire performance shares awarded over the last few years.
He sold the shares at an average price of £37.39 per share.
He retains a stake of £5.2m (141,027 shares) and is sitting on options and other bonus stock potentially worth £14m.
McKittrick, 47, was one of the original co-founding executives of Rightmove along with Ed Williams.
He was appointed to the board in 2004 and became CEO in April 2013 on the departure of Williams.
Also announced late on Friday was that Rightmove’s chief operating office Peter Brookes-Johnson exercised his right to sell shares.
He still holds 37,664 shares plus other options.
Brookes-Johnson joined Rightmove in 2006 and became COO in 2013, having been managing director since 2011 and head of estate agency business since 2008.
Also on Friday, Rightmove announced the latest in its programme of buying back its own shares. It bought 14,000 at an average price of £37.16.
Rightmove has bought 33.3m of its own shares since announcing its buy-back programme on December 28, 2007.
Rightmove – the brainchild of Harry Hill, then chief executive of Countrywide – was launched in 2000 and owned by the four main corporates of the day: Countrywide, Connells, Halifax, and Royal & SunAlliance.
It was initially free to agents but began charging in 2002.
It subsequently floated in 2006 with a market valuation of £425m.
Last week, the company – which made £70.3m profits in the first half of this year – was worth £3.6bn.
Comments (5)
In the spirit of open & honest debate about the income tax position of individuals benefitting from such enormous payments, can Rightmove or Mr McKittrick & Mr Brookes-Johnson confirm their tax payments to the UK Government in relation to these latest windfalls.
If such enormous benefit schemes are in place I would certainly want to know from my position as a British Tax Payer, both personally and in business, that both these individuals are paying their full tax dues and that their is absolutely no issue of any tax-avoidance scandal….. in other words…. any extra benefits should be fully taxed to ensure that the UK Tax Revenue Laws are being applied fairly across every single working indvidual in the UK.
I look forward to a swift and clear/detailed reply from either party or Rightmove. Any ambiguous or deflectiive response must be assumed to be shielding both from a tax paying scandal!
Love em or hate em….. fair play! We all would if we could – well I would!
That’s not a bad amount of money all!
But how about stop messing with your companies finances and give me some of my money back for being a loyal agent?? lol
RM have certainly found their happy since January 26th 😉
Nick – I trust that a share of that £7m is making its way to Springett?!
What an absolutely ridiculous statement.
You’ve ran out of ammo – HarryN – time to face long overdue fact.