- Pearson CEO Bird sells almost £2 million shares to cover tax bill
- CRH boss Albert Manifold offloads 170,000 shares
- Record chief donates 2 million shares to fund educational scholarships
Andy Bird, chief executive of publishing group of Pearson (PSON), has qualified for a batch of shares as part of a co-investment plan. He subsequently sold just over half of them for £2 million to fund associated tax liabilities.
On his appointment as CEO, Bird was granted a one-off co-investment award subject to his own purchase of Pearson shares.
The award is divided into three equal tranches at the end of 2021, 2022, and 2023 and is subject to performance and continued employment at each date.
The vesting of the second tranche of shares and Bird’s subsequent sale comes just days after the group reported a big increase in earnings and a positive outlook.
Pearson reported an 82% rise in pre-tax profit to £323 million for 2022. It expects low to mid-single digit underlying sales growth in 2023 with adjusted operating on track to hit the consensus forecast of £585 million - implying a 28% advance compared with 2022.
CRH BOSS OFFLOADS SHARES
Albert Manifold, CEO of building materials firm CRH (CRH), has also been awarded shares under an employee share participation scheme and then sold €8.3 million of stock.
CRH recently posted record results for 2022 and signalled its intention to switch its main stock market listing to the US, a country which accounts for most of its earnings.
The buildings firm reported a 12% rise in revenue to $32.7 billion, with pre-tax profit also up 12% to $3.47 billion as the company managed cost inflation effectively.
A total dividend for 2022 of $1.27 represented a 5% increase on 2021 and the company announced plans for a $3 billion share buyback.
NEIL RECORD GIFTS SHARES TO FUND EDUCATIONAL SCHOLARSHIPS
Neil Record, chairman of specialist currency and asset manager Record (REC), has gifted 2 million of shares from his personal holding to the company’s charitable trust. The latter has then sold them for £1.8 million to the employee benefit trust to be used under future share-related incentive schemes.
The chairman said: ‘On 7 March 2022, we announced the start of a funding programme for an educational fund utilising Record shares held in my own name.
‘The programme commenced with a gift of two million shares from my personal holding with the stated intention that the charitable trust would sell these shares in a series of orderly tranches.
‘This sale provides scholarship funds for the charitable trust, which has just awarded its first round of scholarships for the academic year 2023-24, with twelve children now receiving substantial support for their whole school careers.’
On 1 March, Neil Record announced that he will be stepping down after the company’s AGM in July. He founded the company in 1983 and was chief executive until 2010.
