M&S chiefs spend £350,000 on shares

MARKS & Spencer chairman and chief executive Luc Vandevelde and four other senior directors bought more than £350,000 of M&S shares today under a new executive share-matching plan approved at the annual meeting.

From next year, directors will have to invest a third of their annual bonus in M&S shares but today's purchases, reflecting a third of their post-tax bonuses, were made voluntarily. The directors will be rewarded with free shares in three years if M&S meets tough performance criteria.

If the company's total shareholder return ranks in the top two among 20 peers and in the top 10 of FTSE 100 companies, the directors will get up to 2.5 times the number bought with their bonuses. Vandevelde will not qualify for the scheme next year because he will be working only as a part-time chairman. However, this will not prevent him from collecting the share handout in three years, providing he is still employed at M&S. He spent just under £150,000 today. In May, honouring the terms of his remuneration, he spent £685,000 on company stock. He now owns 880,000 M&S shares.

Roger Holmes, who takes over as chief executive in September, spent £86,000 on 27,246 shares today. He was paid a bonus of £431,000 - a sum equal to his salary last year.