Mitie boss doubles pay in tough sector as turnaround ‘bears fruit’
Mitie boss Phil Bentley doubled his remuneration last year after two years of saying no to bonuses.
The outsourcing chief executive was paid £2.2m over the year.
He was given a £900,000 base salary and a pension of £180,000. These were both unchanged from the 2018 financial year.
Meanwhile, finance chief Paul Woolf, who joined in November 2017, combed home £879,000 in pay, including a £405,000 bonus.
It comes amid tough times in the outsourcing sector, with rival Carillion going out of business early last year.
And just months ago Interserve went into pre-pack administration.
Speculation has raged that Mitie might buy Interserve’s support services business for £100m.
“We’d be foolish to not look at what is going on and not keep in touch with people, but we’re not about to launch anything,” Bently told Reuters in March.
The chief executive, who was hired in 2016, has helped oversee a turnaround in Mitie’s fortunes over recent years.
He turned a £15m loss in 2018 into a £36m profit in the 2019 financial year.
“Phil has declined his bonus for the past two years,” a spokesperson told the Sunday Telegraph, which was first to report this story.
“This bonus payment is a sign that Mite’s transformation programme is bearing fruit.”
Main image credit: Mitie