The Pinewood Shepperton chief executive, Ivan Dunleavy, received a 25% pay increase last year to £439,000 – and has lined up a further rise this year.
Dunleavy received a base salary of £290,000 and a £90,800 bonus after Pinewood, the home of the James Bond and Harry Potter franchises as well as TV shows such as Dancing on Ice, reported a 31% increase in pre-tax profits to £5.8m and a healthy 8% rise in revenues for 2010.
He was also paid £22,786 in benefits and £36,240 in pension contributions. Separately Dunleavy was also granted 40,000 shares, worth £55,000 when granted in May last year, as part of Pinewood's long-term incentive plan for executive directors.
Pinewood's remuneration committee also decided that Dunleavy deserved a pay rise for 2011 – his base salary has been held at £290,000 since 2008. As of 1 January, his base salary rose to £305,000, an increase "restricted at his [Dunleavy's] request" to 5.1%.
In addition the fee paid to chairman Lord Grade, who is in line for a £1m-plus windfall from the sale of Pinewood Shepperton to largest shareholder Peel Holdings, has been boosted after having also been frozen since 2008. Grade was paid £102,500 last year. This year his fee has increased by 2.5%, or £2,500, to £105,000.
On Wednesday the board of the 75-year-old studio gave backing to an improved takeover offer from Peel Holdings following rival interest from former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
Peel, the commercial property group which leased part of Salford's MediaCityUK site to the BBC, increased its original bid by about £8m, valuing the business at £96.1m. It already owns 29.8% of Pinewood.
Peel will pay 200p in cash per Pinewood share, up from an offer of 190p per share on 7 April. Al Fayed confirmed last week that he was considering making a bid.
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