The surge in Marks & Spencer's (M&S) share price prior to the FTSE 100 behemoth being targeted by a significant cyber attack has seen its chief executive's remuneration balloon to over £7m, it has emerged.
Stuart Machin pocketed just above £7m for the retailer's most recent financial year, a considerable increase from the £5m he took home for the previous 12 months, as reported by .
The uptick in M&S's share price during the financial year ending March this year was a key factor in the inflated pay packet as the retailer's revival gathered momentum.
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Shares in M&S kicked off its latest financial year priced at roughly 260p but concluded the 12 months at around 356p – adding millions to the retailer's market capitalisation.
As per its annual report, the company disclosed that nearly £2.7m of the CEO's pay was due to the rise in the share price.
Cyber attack to have £300m impact on M&S
However, M&S's share price took a severe hit after it announced in April that it had fallen victim to a major cyber attack, believed to be linked to the hacking group Scattered Spider.
It is anticipated that the attack will carve a £300m dent in its earnings this year and that online disruption will persist throughout June and into July.
Its share price plummeted from 411p to a low of 345p but has since begun to rebound.
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M&S stated that the cyber attack has spurred its remuneration committee to reassess the performance metrics and targets for the upcoming performance share plan (PSP).
Last month, it was suggested that Machin could be hit with a pay reduction exceeding £1m for M&S's current fiscal year due to the detrimental effect of a cyber attack on the company's share price.
In May, City AM highlighted a six per cent rise in M&S's revenue to £13.8bn during its most recent financial year.
However, the company's pre-tax profit took a near 24 per cent tumble to £511.8m over the identical period.
M&S also confirmed plans to boost its annual dividend by 20 per cent to 3.6p per share this year.
An M&S spokesperson stated: "CEO pay is decided by the board and reflects performance against stretching pre-set targets.
"Almost 90 per cent of Stuart's pay is linked to performance of the business and the share price – therefore his total pay for FY25 reflects the strong performance and growth of M&S under his leadership over the last three years."
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The spokesperson added: "Over 75 per cent of Stuart's pay is made up of long-term and deferred share awards, subject to waiting periods and tied to future share price performance."
"This year, our strong performance meant we could make our biggest ever investment in store colleague pay."
"Additionally, over 5,000 colleagues, including store managers, received a bonus. We also returned more value to shareholders with an increased dividend payment."