The head of the London Stock Exchange Group almost paid off to £ 6.9m last year after the $ 27bn (£ 19.5bn) company financial data provider Refinitiv took over a rise in the price of LSE shares.
A basic salary of £ 800,000, a bonus of £ 1.4m, as well as £ 4.3m in long-term bonus shares, according to the company’s annual report published on David Schwimmer, a US banker who has been a chief executive of LSE from 2018 Monday.
Along with other benefits such as £ 213,000 of private medical insurance and “expatriate allowances”, Schwimmer’s total pay in 2020 was £ 6.9m – a 180% increase on the £ 2.5m it raised in 2019 – leave as one of the highest paid leaders. the FTSE 100.
The company’s salary payments reflected LSE’s share price growth of 50% between August 2019, when the Refinitiv contract was announced, and closed in January 2021.
Shares have fallen 25% over the past month, however, with fears that business integration costs have been higher than expected.
The purchase of Refinitiv is designed to allow the LSE to compete with global financial information provider Bloomberg. The market for financial information has exploded with computer-driven trading revenue, driving a shift of customers while companies try to create one-stop shops to serve customers. traditional competitors in the provision of data, nicknamed the “new oil”.
The LSE owns the London Stock Exchange, on which it is listed, as well as other European exchanges.
Schwimmer pay is well above the FTSE 100 average payout of £ 3.6m, according to data from the High Pay Center, which lobbies against an action overpayment. He also received a 25% increase in his basic pay for 2021, to £ 1m.
Bankers and others advising on the LSE purchase of Refinitiv won more than $ 1bn in taxes on the deal, making it one of the highest purchases in British business history.