Vodafone staff to share £230m windfall

Staff at mobile phone group Vodafone are set to share a £230m (€336m) windfall this summer when the company’s bonus scheme matures, it emerged today.

It is estimated that seven out of 10 of the group’s 56,000 employees will receive around £5,000 (€7,300) each, according to the Telegraph newspaper.

The average payout looks likely to beat the £4,000 (€5,800) Tesco announced staff would receive earlier this month.

Vodafone granted staff 480 million share options in 2002 when shares were trading at 90p each.

The options, which were worth half of each member of staff’s annual salary, were dependent on Vodafone’s earnings per share rising by 3% a year above inflation for the following three years.

Shortly after the issue the price fell to a five year-low of just 80.5p, but it has since recovered to close at 138.25p on Friday after the group announced it had made profits of £10.3bn (€15bn).

The Newbury-based company said it had met or topped all its stated targets during the year and doubled the dividend to shareholders despite growing competition. As a result all 480 million shares will vest on July 1.

Staff across 15 countries, including shop floor workers, call centre operates and middle managers, will then be able to cash the shares in.

It is the first time staff at the group have been able to exercise any options under the long-term incentive scheme set up by former chief executive Christopher Gent in 1999 when shares were trading at 385p on the back of the dotcom boom.