Rolls-Royce boss ‘Turbo Tufan’ gets backing for £18m pay packet
The boss of Rolls-Royce looks to have secured the shareholder backing for a multi-million pound pay bump.
Tufan Erginbilgic, who took charge of the firm at the start of 2023, is set to win approval for a £18m pay packet, which will see his annual bonus entitlement increase from two to three times his base salary.
A report from the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) – which institutional investors closely monitor – recommends shareholders vote in favour of the new bumper package, according to Sky News.
The scheme will see Erginbilgic’s long-term incentive award double from a maximum of 750 per cent of his salary compared to 375 per cent previously. This positions the package as one of the richest programmes on offer from a FTSE 100 firm.
This will combine with a 15 per cent uplift in Erginbilgic’s base salary to £1.6m, meaning his potential package for the financial year could reach £18m.
Rolls-Royce rally to the top
It marks a major shift in tone from the ISS, which has previously being sceptical of exuberant chief executive pay awards.
“The company provides cogent arguments around ED [executive director] retention, its growth since 2023, and the global nature of its operations and talent pool,” ISS said in relation to Rolls-Royce.
“The company’s arguments surrounding executive retention, in the context of the above performance, are compelling.”
When he joined the FTSE 100 giant, Erginbilgic pocketed a ‘golden hello’ share package valued at just over £8m, when the firm’s stock was languishing below 100p. Since then, the stock price has rocketed to its current level north of the 1,200p mark.
The rally has made it one of the London Stock Market’s most valuable firms with a mammoth market cap of over £100bn.
Earlier this year, the City darling laid out plans to return billions to investors over the next two years after profit soared.
The aerospace titan revealed a £7bn to £9bn multi-year share buyback from 2026 to 2028, which comes as the firm wraps up a £1bn buyback from the last 12 months. Up to £2.5bn of the buyback is set to be delivered in 2026.