Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has said he won’t put up with any “mewling nonsense” over City executives’ hefty pay packets as Premier League managers Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp get £25m a year.
The Irish businessman is in line for a €100m (£84.6m) bonus from Ryanair under an agreement made in 2019.
The payout, which rests on shares trading above €21 for 28 straight days or the airline reporting €2.2bn in annual post-tax profit, would be one of the biggest in corporate European history.
“If I do get it [the €100m bonus], all the City types will be railing against excessive executive pay and I’m not putting up with any of that mewling nonsense,” O’Leary told the Telegraph in an interview.
“Footballers are getting half a million a week. Pep, who I think is a genius and deserves every penny, is getting £25m a year, Klopp too – and nobody says boo.
“Yet some guy running a serious business employing 20,000-plus people gets paid £5 or £10m and it’s suddenly excessive.”
The airline is expected to report €1.9bn post-tax profit for the year ended March 31, meaning O’Leary’s bonus won’t be delivered by that metric. However, Ryanair’s stock has passed the €21 barrier a couple of times for short spells since late March after rising more than 50 per cent last year to record highs. Its share price currently sits at just over €20.
His comments come amid an ongoing row in the City over the pay of some of its top-level executives.
Shareholders in the London Stock Exchange Group recently waved through a doubling of its chief executive David Schwimmer’s pay packet to £13m, despite fears over an exodus of UK-listed firms.
FTSE 250 shipbroker Clarkson’s is gearing up for a showdown with investors at its annual general meeting after dishing out £11.9m to boss Andi Case last year.
O’Leary argued his prospective payout should be taken as payment for five or more years work expanding Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline by passenger numbers, rather than a one-off reward.
He said the incentive scheme should not be referred to as a bonus. “It is the shareholders who pay it, not the company.” It was originally supposed to expire in 2024 but was extended by four years around 18 months ago.
Over the last few years, Ryanair has cemented its position as Europe’s most dominant carrier in the short-haul market.
In November, it announced a maiden dividend for shareholders after soaring ticket fares helped it net a record £1.8bn in half-year profit.