Five property bosses to share £43m

FIVE bosses at a property company are to share in one of Britain's biggest bonus deals totalling £43m. MEPC, one of Britain's biggest property firms, is to hand out £65m in total under a bonus plan agreed when the company went private 18 months ago.

The five sharing a record £43.6m are chief executive Jamie Dundas and fellow directors Robert Ware, Stephen East, Gavin Davidson and Iain Watters. The remaining £21.4m will be split between other executives of the group.

Fat cat payments at privatised companies used to be single figure millions. MEPC was taken off the stock market at a price of £3.6bn 18 months ago. The bonus package was put in place when the company was taken private by GE Capital and Hermes last June.

There had been speculation two months ago that the MEPC management would miss out on the controversial bonus and would collect nothing. Among other projects MEPC is building a huge new film studio near Watford, Herts.