Outgoing Centrica boss Iain Conn has defended his bonus pay and insisted “every pound” of it has been reinvested back into the company.
Conn received a 44 per cent pay rise in 2018 after being awarded two £388,000 bonuses despite “mixed results”.
His total pay packet for the year was £2.4 million compared to £1.7 million in 2017. His base salary increased by £4,000 to £940,000.
Speaking in a media conference call today (30 July) Conn was asked about the concerns raised over his executive pay throughout his tenure.
In response he said: “Every single pound of bonus that I have received from this company, whether in shares on in cash, since 2015 I have reinvested into the company.
“I do share the pain of where the share price is. I do understand there are very big differences between what some people are paid and executive pay is a very big, emotive topic and I get it completely.
“I just want to be clear though, 80 per cent of my pay is performance related and that is how it should be.”
Conn’s departure was announced by Centrica this morning in the company’s interim results, which showed an “exceptionally challenging” first half resulted in a statutory operating loss of £446 million compared to a £704 million profit last year.
British Gas meanwhile lost 178,000 customers.