Yahoo Finance Steiner earns £110m bonus following Ocado-Kroger tie-up
Ocado deliveries will soon include the largest ever executive bonus for the boss of a London-listed company, and a multi-million pound surprise windfall for its chairman.
Tim Steiner, Ocado’s co-founder and major shareholder, will pocket a bonus totalling £110m for last year after the online grocer’s share price surged following its tie-up with US supermarket giant Kroger. Ocado will hand Mr Steiner stock options worth £32m next month, and the former Goldman Sachs bond trader will be able to pick up the remaining £78m owed to him through a decade-long golden handcuffs deal in early 2019, The Sunday Times reported.
The technology behind Ocado’s online grocery store and warehouse automation has caught the eye of a string of rivals in recent months. Kroger executives agreed to take a 5pc stake in exchange for using its systems across 20 robotic warehouses in the US.
The milestone Kroger deal, which added billions to Ocado’s market value at a stroke, will also add £3m to the wealth of its chairman and former Marks and Spencer boss, Lord Rose of Monewden.
The online grocer’s £5.3bn market value now eclipses M&S and could knock the retail giant from the FTSE 100 when the index of Britain’s largest companies is redrawn next month.
Ocado’s first step into the US market accelerates its plans to become a global supplier of white-label online shopping technology in a devastating blow to the company’s doubters who had dismissed the group as a remnant of the dot com boom.
