Bock's £700,000 first-year salary dwarfed by Tiny's

Dieter Bock, the German property tycoon who has replaced Tiny Rowland at the helm of Lonrho, was paid £700,000 in his first year of drawing a salary from the international trading conglomerate.

That included £100,000 worth of pension contributions as Mr Bock is not a member of the Lonrho pension scheme.

But his remuneration is still dwarfed by Mr Rowland's, which totalled just over £1.5m last year, a £50,000 reduction on 1993.

Mr Bock declined to take a salary until a remuneration committee was set up at Lonrho as part of his policy of "normalising" the company in line with the Cadbury committee guidelines on corporate governance. On top of the salary award, Mr Bock, who has an 18 per cent stake in Lonrho, was granted 100,000 share options at an exercise price of 136p.

The company's shares closed yesterday at 153p.

Mr Rowland, who ceded executive control to Mr Bock late last year, is due to retire from the board at the annual meeting in March, but he will continue to receive his full salary and benefits until the end of this year, as part of a deal reached with Mr Bock after an acrimonious public row.

Four directors who departed last year, including the former chairman, Rene Leclezio, received pay-offs totalling £2.4m.

All directors are now on contracts of no longer than a year.