Rolls-Royce boss ‘Turbo Tufan’ on track for record £100m payday
The boss of Rolls-Royce is expected to receive a share-based bumper that could exceed £100m, following the turnaround that has seen the engineering group’s market value surge.
Tufan Erginbilgic, who took charge at the start of 2023, was awarded 8.3m shares as part of his package deal to take over the FTSE 100 giant.
At the time, this ‘golden hello’ share package, which vests in two tranches in 2027 and 2028, was valued at just over £8m.
When initially granted, shares in Rolls-Royce were languishing below 100p amid concerns over debt, operational performance and long-term strategy.
It has now been reported that at the current share price of 1,149p, Erginbilgic’s original award would be worth about £106m if it ultimately vests in full.
The potential payout would rank among the largest for a UK-listed company.
Erginbilgic earned £13.6m in 2023, including compensation from Global Infrastructure Partners, placing him among the highest-paid executives in the index.
However, his total remuneration was £4.1m last year as one-off awards rolled off.
Rolls-Royce: Previous troubles
When he first arrived at the FTSE 100 group, Erginbilgic described Rolls-Royce as a ‘burning platform’ facing significant financial challenges, with net debt of £3.25bn at the end of 2022 and concerns about its recovery.
When Erginbilgic took over, he said the company had been “grossly mismanaged”, describing financials the engineering group faced in 2019 as the “worst I have seen in my career”.
Dubbed ‘Turbo Tufan’, Erginbilgic focused on wooing the City with a turnaround plan that included an aggressive cost-cutting strategy, which entailed slashing 2,500 jobs.
FTSE 100 giant’s strong recovery
In just two years, Rolls-Royce shares have made a remarkable turn with the FTSE 100 giant valued at more than £100bn in September.
Rolls-Royce was the fifth most valuable company on the London Stock Exchange, behind HSBC, AstraZeneca, Shell, and Unilever.
The Derby-headquartered group revealed in November that it expects operating profit for 2025 to jump by 26 per cent, to fall between £3.1bn and £3.2bn, up from around £2.2bn in 2024.
It received a hefty boost from its civil aerospace and defence divisions, benefiting from tailwinds in the recovery of global air travel.