Alliance Boots chief executive Richard Baker is set to receive a £6.5m windfall when the £11.1bn buyout of the FTSE 100 health and beauty chain is completed. The Times. The Independent. Daily Telegraph. Financial Times
Takeover documents filed yesterday, showed that Scott Wheway, health and beauty retail director, will collect £1.2m; Stefano Pessina, deputy chairman and 15%shareholder, will collect £820,000 in cash; and his long-time partner, Ornella Barra, who is also a Boots director, will pick up £531,000.
However, the payouts are dwarfed by the £500m Pessina will receive from selling a third of his stake.
The GMB trade union described the windfall payments as 'obscene and unacceptable'. Paul Maloney, national officer of the GMB, said: 'The private equity industry is first and foremost a mechanism for the multimillionaire elite to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us.'
'Since Boots does £2bn of business with the NHS, much of this money is flowing direct from the taxpayer.'