Zoopla has given notice of its annual general meeting.
It will be on February 25 when shareholders will be asked to approve a number of items, including directors’ appointments and remuneration, and political donations.
The focus will very much be on the value that CEO Alex Chesterman brings to the business and the remuneration thought necessary to retain him.
Resolutions at the AGM will include the re-elections of both Chesterman and Grenville Turner, who is currently chairman of Countrywide although said to be stepping down from that particular role.
According to Zoopla’s annual report, covering the 12 months to September 30 last year, Chesterman earned £1,070,000 including bonus.
New remuneration arrangements, approved on October 1, 2015, by the Remuneration Committee, should mean that his earnings go up in this current financial year.
The changes included an increase in the maximum bonus opportunity of the CEO to 150% of salary (up from 125%).
This is part of a Value Creation Plan (VCP) for Chesterman to maximise his value to the business over the next period of Zoopla’s development “and to ensure his retention”.
The annual report says: “Under the VCP, the CEO will be able to earn shares based on the absolute total shareholder return generated above a threshold level of return over the four-year VCP performance period.”
A third change was an increase in the minimum shareholding requirement for the CEO to 400% of salary.
In line with the increase for Zoopla employees, Chesterman’s basic pay was upped by 6.7% to £480,000, while chief financial officer Stephen Morana’s pay was increased to £320,000.
During the 2015 financial year, Morana earned £641,000.
Yesterday, Zoopla announced that Morana is leaving the company.
No replacement has yet been announced, and Morana will continue in the role until his successor has been appointed.
Chesterman paid tribute to him, saying: “He helped to prepare the company for its life as a public company, culminating in our successful IPO in 2014.
“He has been an outstanding CFO and whilst we will be sad to see him move on, we understand his desire to pursue new opportunities and wish him every success in his future endeavours.”
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Comments (12)
Presumably the perceived ‘group think’ value is tied up with the understanding of ‘big data’ and the ability to increase revenues quite significantly in the face of adverse relationships with a significant proportion of the industry.
I think if the traditional sector of our industry understood the true value of the data its goodwill and local reputation and recognition has, the value of big data projects would very quickly become less attractive and certainly less profitable and viable.
The guy does not set his own pay and most of what he gets is performance dependent. There is no arguing. To date, he delivers. If it all starts to go belly up he will be the first one to be booted out.
I can’t see how someone is ‘worth’ that much!
I’ve suggested ‘1stTimeBuyer’ joins this conversation, as Zoopla desperately needs ONE person clapping their hands at news that this chap could possibly be deemed worth a cool £Mill-a-Year.
Madness.
He got that cool £1 mill just for passing GO. The other £11m he got was picking up the community chest card that said “you can sell 1/4 of your shares” which I believe he did for £11 million more.
If Springett’s worth £500k a year, I’d suggest Chesterman’s undervalued.
After that comment D/E I’m guessing you have your annual appraisal coming up!
As I’m self employed, it’ll be glowing as always and will end with rewarding myself with an afternoon at the pub.
Thinking of it, I might make it a bi-annual appraisal.
To be fair, I can’t argue with that DE!
just milking the cash cow.
I wonder if Morana is also leaving Zoopla to join OTM!?!
This is getting silly. That’s two positive Zoopla stories in two days. Whatever next? A positive story about RM? It’s a disgrace 😉