Fisher pockets at least £7.7m in Travelworld sale

Airtours details payments for retail chain

Fisher pockets at least £7.7m in Travelworld sale

Report by JEREMYSKIDMORE

FORMER Travelworld managing director Terry Fisher will make between £7.7 million and £8.4 million from the sale of the retailer to Airtours, according to a document released to the group’s shareholders.

Travelworld’s owners will be paid between £7.6 million and £8 million in cash and between £100,000 and £1.1 million in unsecured loan notes, depending on the retailer’s performance up to December 31 this year. Fisher will receive half the total payout as he was a 50% shareholder of the agency.

In addition, he has already received £1.2 million in cash and £2.7 million in unsecured loan notes from Airtours.

Travelworld was sold to Airtours in December 1998 and Fisher has since been installed as MD of Going Places, where he embarked on a cost-cutting programme, which included the move to axe cleaners in shops.

He is currently on sick leave but is expected to leave the Airtours group when the final payments for the retailer have been made at the end of the year.

Industry sources said Travelcare general manager Yvonne Rankin had been lined up to replace him but she said she had not been approached and was happy in her current position.

Details of Fisher’s payout were contained in a document sent to shareholders advising of an extraordinary general meeting on September 25 to vote on the sale of Airtours’ 50% stake in Costa Cruises. The £350 million deal is a formality as major shareholders have already agreed it. The document also confirmed Airtours paid £10 million in cash and around £6 million in shares for Panorama Holidays, of which MDJustin Fleming received 50%.

It also revealed Airtours group MD Tim Byrne earns a basic annual salary of £375,000, while Airtours UKLG chief executive Peter Rothwell and aviation division chairman Mike Lee are both paid £320,000.

As board directors, each also receives a bonus of up to 62.5% of their salary and the company pays 25% of their salary into a pension scheme each year.

Chairman David Crossland is paid a salary of £570,000.

He has no pension rightsbut owns 10% of the firm, valuing his stake at over £100 million.

Clear profit: Fisher will receive a final payment at the end of the year