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Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group will hand over almost £ 21 million to the new boss Frasers Group

The incoming boss of the owner of Sports Direct Frasers Group has received his biggest payout, receiving a consulting fee of nearly £ 21 million as he prepares to take over from founder Mike Ashley next month.

Michael Murray, Fraser’s head of promotion, who is engaged to Ashley Anna’s daughter, receives a sum three times the amount he has ever earned from Sports Direct. It is based on a controversial agreement in which Murray is paid a consulting fee based on the value generated by real estate transactions made for the company.

Murray’s MM Prop Consultancy Ltd is entitled to up to 25% of any value created by its services to Frasers, which also owns department stores House of Fraser, designer fashion chain Flannels, game retailers and event group Game, Evans Cycles and Jack Wills.

The £ 20.9 million payment handed over to Murray for 2022 comes after £ 2.5 million in 2021 and £ 9.7 million in payments in 2019 and 2020. These payments were already far away. over £ 150,000 a year paid to former Direct Direct CEO, such as former CEO Dave Forsy.

The Doncaster-born son of a developer who started helping Ashley with real estate deals a few years after meeting Anna on holiday in 2011 could also receive shares worth more than £ 100 million if he more than double its share price by £ 15 by 2025 under a new payment agreement that takes effect on 1 May. The stock price is currently £ 6.93.

Nearly half of Frasers’ independent shareholders rejected the group’s plans for the £ 100 million bonus scheme, and more than half opposed a pay rise and a bonus for the group’s chief financial officer, Chris Wooton.

In a stock market statement late Friday, Frasers said the latest payout was made after an assessment of the final terms of Murray’s consulting deal before he moved to his new role. It says the assessment was made “with the help of independent experts from third countries”.

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Frasers said the deal included a 40 percent discount agreed with Murray as part of the “finalization and termination” of the consulting agreement.

The Frasers board said: “The agreement with MM Prop Consultancy Ltd has provided significant financial and strategic value to the group and its stakeholders. We are glad that Michael will now move us forward in our rise, in which we are already making great progress. “

Murray said: “I am very excited to lead the Frasers Group in its next chapter and I am confident that we will take the group to new heights with the progress we are making in our ascent strategy.”