Asos boss set for £24m

Nick Robertson, the chief executive of Asos, is set to pick up nearly £24 million in shares over the next 16 months after the online fashion specialist hit the targets of a three-year management incentive plan.

The bumper payout for the co-founder of Asos and seven other senior employees was revealed as the group posted a 43% leap in underlying profits to £40.9 million over the year to March 31, driven by strong growth in overseas revenues and group margins.

Robertson will be awarded nearly 1.5 million shares worth a total of £23.6 million, based on today’s share price of 1587p. He can cash in half these shares from September 30 and the other half on the same date a year later. Under the plan that took effect on April 1, 2009, he and seven other directors invested about £200,000 of their own money into the scheme.

Asos — which has 4.4 million active customers in 160 countries — grew its market capitalisation by more than 500% to £1.4 billion and met the target of growing earnings per share by a compound rate of 42% over the three years to the end of March.