4 MAY 1991, Page 23

BTR's golden pensions

I AM told not to be beastly to Sir Ian MacLaurin, just because Tesco is suddenly paying him £11/2 million a year. He is said to have done a splendid job. I should think it even more splendid if he did not end up being paid a ridiculous salary. It is no answer to say that other people get paid as handsomely but less visibly. A dip in the pension fund is the surest way — and, with pensions based on final salaries, explains why so many chairmen get huge rises in pay for their last year of service. The chairman's salary must be shown in the accounts, but pension contributions do not have to be included in the published figure, and are mostly left out. Every so often comes a clue. BTR is not a company whose directors expect to live high off the hog (the chairman's salary is one-seventh of Sir Ian's) but, this year, a note to the accounts deals with 'pension and superannuation contributions in respect of directors.' This came out at £5,592,669– split between two directors. The note tells us that this was 'pension funding consolidated during the year in respect of the group's contractual obligations.' The moral, as with Sir Ian, or the directors of Thames Television with their golden incentives and parachutes, is that contractual obligations to directors should need the approval of shareholders.