A self-made online shopping tycoon has landed an £830million pay out after his firm’s share price soared.
Matthew Moulding, 48, founded technology firm The Hut Group in 2004 and has received what is one of the largest bonuses in corporate history after the company’s share price rose to meet its target.
The target was set when the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in September at 500p a share and a value of £5.4billion. The price is now 647.8p.
The total payout from the scheme for Mr Moulding could hit £1billion if The Hut’s market capitalisation rises further to £7.25billion.
Self-made online shopping tycoon Matt Moulding (centre) has landed an £830million pay out after his firm’s share price soared
The 48-year-old owns 20 per cent of the business which is best known for its MyProtein brand of fitness supplements.
Even if the current price were to remain as it is, Moulding’s pay day still dwarfs the £323million received by Denise Coates, the founder of gambling giant Bet 365, in 2018.
The only other sums which would best Moulding’s was the £1.2billion Topshop boss Philip Green awarded to himself in 2005 and the £1.1billion bonus Lakshmi Mittal – the steel magnate – received in 2004.
Matthew Moulding, 48, founded technology firm The Hut Group in 2004 and received what is one of the largest bonuses in corporate history after the company’s share price rose to meet its target
Mr Moulding will only be able to actually sell his shares in March due to a 180-day lock-in period.
The entrepreneur already takes just under £20million a year out of The Hut Group as the company’s landlord and currently owns a £556million stake.
Mr Moulding will also be paid a basic salary of £750,000 a year as part of the flotation. He has pledged to donate the money to charity.
Last year, he was paid a total of £4.7million, mostly through share awards.
Mr Moulding will only be able to actually sell his shares in March due to a 180-day lock-in period. Pictured: The tycoon with his wife Jodie
Flashing the cash: Hut Group’s founder and fitness fanatic Matt Moulding (above in red shorts)
The company also owns other online brand Lookfantastic. It also works with big names including Nestle and Unilever.
But critics slammed the scheme via which Mr Moulding’s latest pay day materialised.
Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, told the Daily Mail: ‘This looks like a gross overpayment for short-term share price increases and highlights the litany of corporate governance abuses associated with The Hut Group.
‘While the company has been celebrated as a British tech success story, these arrangements are far beyond what anybody could consider a fair and proportionate reward for success.’
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Many of his shares paid out when the firm’s share price reached a high of 703p. They then fell back after positive news about the latest coronavirus vaccine developments.
The chairman of the Hut Group’s remuneration committee is private equity boss Dominic Murphy, who is also a long-term business associate of Mr Moulding’s.
News of the bonus comes after criticism over the company’s ‘awful’ corporate governance due to Moulding’s dominant position as ‘executive chairman’ and a lack of independent directors.
A spokesman for The Hut Group told the Daily Mail: ‘We are delighted with the market reaction to our IPO and that all of our shareholders are benefiting from the strong performance of the business.
‘The equity scheme was put in place when THG was a private company and we are delighted that over 200 THG staff have already shared in the scheme, worth around £200m today.’
In the three months to September 30, The Hut Group reported £378million of sales. Bosses predict profits for the whole year will be around £1.5billion.
The payout caps a remarkable transformation for Mr Moulding, who started working life as a pot washer at his local pub and describes his background as ‘typical working class’.
He grew up in Colne, a market town north of Burnley, his father a road worker laying tarmac and his mother a homemaker.
Mr Moulding went to a state school, before studying industrial economics at Nottingham University.
Now, his family has a fortune of £600 million, with the tycoon tightly controlling his vast empire through his iPhone, working long hours and drinking 20 shots of coffee a day – though he finds time to holiday with his wife and four children in the Maldives and Dubai.
Mr Moulding also seems determined to maintain his links to the north, rarely travelling for business and encouraging potential investors to visit him in Manchester.
On a typical day, he wakes up at 6am and checks his messages on his iPhone, before starting working at 7am.
He takes a mid-morning break to go to the gym – not missing a day of working out for several years.
Mr Moulding has two 30-minute meetings throughout the day and is fuelled by coffee, before arriving home to his children.
The 48-year-old owns 20 per cent of the business which is best known for its MyProtein brand of fitness supplements
