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Ryanair’s head, Michael O’Leary, has described for shares options for more than € 100 million after the airline actions reached a key performance objective, racing the way for one of the greatest payments in European corporate history.
The shares in the low -cost operator closed to € 23.74 on Thursday, which means that they have closed more than € 21 for a consecutive day, complying with one of the two conditions attached to the Salary Agreement of O’Leary’s Bumper.
The 64 -year -old will have to stay in Ryanair Until the end of July 2028 to collect shares options, worth more than 111 million euros, as part of an incentive scheme agreed in 2019.
O’LearyKnown for his struggle style, he defended his unexpected gain earlier this month after Ryanair reported a drop in profits of the whole year.
“I think we are offering exceptional value for Ryanair’s shareholders in an era in which Premiership players or managers receive € 20mn at 25 million euros a year,” he said.
Ryanair’s shareholders, he added, were “obtaining a particular value of our shares options, both mine and the rest of the management team.”
O’Leary said that, as the options would not be granted for another three years, he and the “rest of the management team have to stay here until 2028 and continue delivering before we can obtain those action options.”
“So they don’t come for another three years and many things can happen between now and then,” he added.
O’Leary also pointed out that he could stay in the airline when his current contract expired in 2028.
“My contract is exhausted in 2028 and there will have to be an argument, I suppose that with the Board on how my remuneration will be fixed from 2028, if they want it to remain after 2028,” he said.
O’Leary’s possible salary agreement compares with József Váradi, head of the low -cost rival, Wizz Air, who can win £ 100 million if the price of the shares of that airline reaches £ 120 by 2028. But Wizz Air He has previously granted that it was unlikely that this would meet with the actions that are quoted well below that level.
Bumper payment packages are more common in the United States. The executive director of Ge Aeroospace, Larry Culp, received $ 89mn In 2024, making it one of the best paid American executives.
Some European companies, including the London Stock Exchange, the group, have been pressing for more salary rewards for their executives.
Since Ryanair’s executive director became in 1994, O’Leary has teacher the vertiginous growth of the airline, since it has grown from a small regional airline to a force in global aviation.
The airline has consolidated its position as undisputed leader in low -cost European aviation after using the interruption caused by the pandemic to increase its market share as its weakest rivals retained.
O’Leary receives a basic salary of € 1.2 million a year, but also has a participation in Ryanair for about 930 million euros.
According to the scheme agreed in 2019, it was awarded the options to buy 10 mn shares at € 11.12 each if the price of the airline shares reached € 21 for 28 consecutive days, or reported € 2.2 billion in annual profits after taxes at any time until 2028.
Ryanair said: “If the price of the action remains above € 21 until the closing of the game on Thursday, May 29, then the condition of the 28 -day shares will have been met. However, this is only one of the two conditions for the shares options to be granted.”
Additional reports from Patrick Temple-West in New York