Lord Young receives 77% pay rise

LORD YOUNG, chairman of Cable and Wireless, the international telecommunications group and owner of Mercury in the UK, received a 77 per cent pay rise to pounds 863,410 last year as he and seven other executive directors shared in a pounds 1.82m bonus payment, writes Terence Wilkinson.

The company said the bonus payments reflected the considerable progress made by Cable and Wireless not only in 1992/3 but also in previous years. No bonuses were paid in 1991/2.

Cable and Wireless this week reported a rise in headline pre-tax profits from pounds 644m to pounds 918m in the year to 31 March, boosted by exceptional items including a pounds 118m profit on the sale of 20 per cent of Mercury to the Canadian BCE. Underlying profits rose 15 per cent and earnings per share 6 per cent. Over the past three years earnings have grown by an average 8 per cent.

The company said a review by independent consultants found that its directors' base salaries, which with one exception are frozen from April 1992 to July 1994, were substantially below the median for comparable companies in the UK, US and Continental Europe.