Sorrell's 2015 Earnings 'Close to £70m'

WPP Chief Executive Sir Martin Sorrell has received shares worth £60m, according to reports. With salary and annual bonuses the figure is 'likely to approach £70m'. The share award is triggered by the group's success in outperforming both its peers and the FTSE 100 over five years.

According to www.theguardian.com the total for 2015 beats Sorrell's previous best of £53m in 2004, as well as last year's £43m, and pushes his total earnings for 2011-15 inclusive to around £150m.

Under a now-discontinued long-term share plan, the success of the Group ('though not particularly of its insight-focused 'data investment management' division (DIM)) in beating competitors and the FTSE triggers the release of around 3.5m shares, each valued at c.£15, plus shares to cover forgone dividends to bring the total to £60m. To this can be added £1.1m in salary - little changed since 2008 - plus annual bonuses.

The announcement - coming near the start of the UK's top company AGM season - will stir discontent bubbling since 2012 when Sorrell wrote in an item in the FT in 2012 that he found 'the controversy over my compensation deeply disturbing'. He believes the decisions are 'competitively fair against our big US and French competitors, which we consistently outperform'.

The company, which had two employees when Sorrell bought it in 1985 and now has around 125,000, is online at www.wpp.com .