Eircom Chief Executive Leaves With Eur. 2m

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

19 December 2001

The Chief Executive of Eircom, leaving after completion of the takover by the Valentia Consortium, has negotiated an exit package worth EUR2 million. Mr Alfie Kane (58), leaves the firm at the end of the month after seven years at the helm. He will be replaced by Dr Philip Nolan, currently Chief Executive of UK infrastructure company Lattice Group.

The package is made up of a EUR1.25 million top-up to Mr Kane's pension scheme and one year's salary of EUR482,500. Several consultancy contracts with Eircom that will run for another 12 months bring the package to just more than EUR2 million. The pension top-up means Mr Kane will receive a pension of EUR217,000 a year when he reaches retirement age.

Mr Kane owned fewer than 24,000 shares in Eircom and had no share options because the company never put in place a share option scheme for executives. The Government blocked the establishment of such a scheme in the run-up to the company's flotation in mid-1999 for fear that the process would appear tainted if the senior management made windfall profits. Most of the shares held by Mr Kane therefore represent his allocation under the Eircom Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT). As an employee of the company, he is entitled to a portion of the 15 per cent of Eircom that was held by the ESOT since the flotation.

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