Burberry’s Christopher Bailey to receive £10.5m in shares

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 7, 2017

Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s chief creative and CEO, is expected to receive shares worth £10.5m next month when Marco Gobbetti takes over the management of the British fashion business.

The shares are part of a package of 1 million shares awarded to Bailey in 2013, when he was appointed as chief executive officer of Burberry replacing Angela Ahrendts.

Next month, the Yorkshire-born designer will collect 600,000 shares of the 1 million, which at the current price of 17.65p are worth about £10.5m. It is understood Burberry will hand him the remaining shares at a later date.

Christopher Bailey has served as both creative director and CEO of Burberry for about four years, presiding over a period of declining sales and profits.

His salary will remain at over £1m when he steps down as chief executive director and takes up the role of president of Burberry next month, according to press reports.

The luxury brand’s annual report published earlier this week shows Burberry increased revenue for the year to 31 March from £2.55bn to £2.76bn, however profit before tax fell from £416m a year earlier to £396. Among other measures, the company proposed to reduce the annual bonus policy maximum from 225% to 200% of salary in view of the recent senior level changes.

Marco Gobbetti, a former Céline boss, joined Burberry on 27 January and is due to become chief executive director on 5 July.