Big carve-up by Evolution chiefs

Directors of Evolution Group, the investment bank and brokerage house, shared a tenth of the proceeds of the flotation of IP2IPO, the intellectual property group, when it listed on the Alternative Investment Market last year.

Chief executive Alex Snow took £480,000 of the £1.5 million payment, described in the accounts as a 'special award'. That pushed his total pay package up to £1.45m, of which £1.35m was in the form of bonuses. Richard Griffiths, executive chairman, got a £220,000 special award as part of a £1.3m package, £1.2m of which was bonuses, according to an analysis by Manifest.

Snow was awarded options over 6 million shares, priced at 1p in February, potentially worth £8.5m. Two million of these, worth £2.8m, can be exercised unconditionally in June, but the other two-thirds will depend on the bank achieving targets for growth in earnings.

An Evolution spokesman said the management had inherited a disparate collection of businesses - Evolution was an incubator of high-tech companies before it acquired broker Beeson Gregory - many of which had been sold at a loss. The special awards were a reflection of the success of the IP2IPO flotation. Evolution's pre-tax profits last year were £17.9m, compared with a £24m loss the previous year.

Packaging group Bunzl is the latest firm to face a shareholders' protest after Pirc recommended voting against a long-term incentive plan and the Association of British Insurers gave it an amber rating. Pirc says the new plan, 'combined with other incentive awards', is potentially excessive. Manifest, the proxy voting agency, says directors could be entitled to up to five times their salary.