Monro walks away with £9.5m

FORMER Matalan chief executive Angus Monro bagged a £9.5m package to compensate him for being ousted from the top job. Monro, who spent five years at the helm until his departure in April 2001, was given £746,000 in cash and allowed to keep 2.12m share options.

He pocketed £3.4m from cashing in part of the options in May 2001 and made another £2.6m in February this year.

Monro, now boss at engineer Oystertec, still owns 750,000 Matalan options worth £2.7m. Many were granted before the discount clothing chain floated in 1998. The shares were worth less than 50p then, but a surge in sales sent them soaring to an 800p peak in 2000. They are now 357 3/4p.

Monro's replacement, Paul Mason, who joined in January, is not doing too badly either. The company's latest annual report shows he received a £450,000 'golden hello' to compensate for loss of bonus at former employer Asda. He also got £75,000 salary for his first two months' work.