£1m pay packet puts Furse among equals

CLARA Furse, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, has bagged a £1m pay, shares and options package.

Her handsome rewards came despite disappointment that she failed to nail down a merger of the LSE with either of its two erstwhile suitors, Germany's Deutsche B?rse and Parisbased Euronext.

The 47-year-old mother of three was paid a basic salary of £374,000, plus a cash bonus of £460,000. She was also awarded free shares worth nearly £136,000 at today's price of 489¼p, down ¾p, which she can cash in after three years, provided she meets performance targets.

She was also given share options currently showing a paper profit of £96,000, which she can exercise after three years.

Furse is one of the few female directors of listed companies to have broken through the £1m pay barrier, which she first breached in 2003, though her pay dipped back last year.

A spokesman said she had 'exceeded her personal objectives' and that the exchange had met its annual financial targets.

But LSE shares show little sign of regaining the 590p they hit at the height of the bid fever. Furse dismissed a 530p a share approach from Deutsche Boerse, which withdrew its bid in March. Euronext has not tabled a formal offer.

Women have yet to make big inroads into the million-pound corporate pay club - and the best paid women here are North American, including Furse, who describes herself as British-Canadian, but whose accent veers more to the latter.

Texan Marjorie Scardino of Pearson, earned £1.54m last year including a controversial £831m bonus, while Rose Marie Bravo, the American boss of clothing-firm Burberry, last year cashed in £5.4m of shares on top of a £1m pay package.

High Street bank Lloyds TSB, where 30,000 staff yesterday received ballot papers on industrial action in a pay dispute, has just hired San Franciscan Terri Dial with a deal that could bring her almost £5m over three years.