Mayo in court over Marconi pension

THE scourge of John Mayo has come back to haunt Marconi shareholders with the company's former finance director launching a £1.6m court action against the telecoms group over the value of his pension fund.

The man who has been widely blamed for destroying billions of pounds in shareholder value at the once-great former General Electric Company claims his valuations show the fund has a shortfall of about £960,000.

He is demanding Marconi plugs this gap and pays the tax bill of about £640,000 that would be triggered by switching the fund from Marconi to another scheme of his choice.

Mayo, who has admitted 'shared responsibility' for Marconi's demise, collected £1.2m in addition to his pension fund when he was ousted in July last year. The fund is effectively a final-salary pension scheme with one member - Mayo. It is believed that under a standard agreement for most highly-paid executives, Marconi agreed to meet the tax bills associated with the scheme.

His claims of a shortfall are believed to be based on an actuarial valuation which found the fund had insufficient assets to meet its future obligations to Mayo. This is the result of its recent poor investment performance, which has been hit by plunging stock markets and low interest rates. Marconi declined to say if it would defend the claim.