TUI boss sells shares worth more than two million pounds
TUI Travel chief executive Peter Long sold personal shares in the company worth a total of £2,075 million yesterday when he also announced the company made a record UK operating profit of £197 million.
His deputy Johan Lundgren made £970,233 from the sale of shares yesterday and chief financial officer William Waggott made £332,652.
The shares were sold at £2.77 each. The share price today was up almost 2% to £2.84.
Long, who sold 748,725 shares, retains a total interest in 10,429,005 shares, relating to a 3,025,860 personal holding, 4,929,883 under the Deferred Annual Bonus Scheme and 2,473,262 under the Performance Share Plan.
The company issued a statement to the London Stock Exchange saying that, as previously announced to the market in May 2008, Long has committed to retain a minimum personal holding of 3 million shares for the medium term.
Long yesterday admitted to Sky News that TUI UK had paid "little or no" corporation tax in the UK, despite making an annual pre-tax profit of £390 million.
He said the company had offset previous losses against profits to cuts its tax bill. "Within the UK, because we have accumulated tax losses as a result of restructuring the business, there’s little or no tax being paid in the UK," he said on Sky News.
"But that’s as a consequence of these carried forward losses that we have. Once those losses have been utilised,then we will pay tax in the normal way as we comply with all the laws of the lands that we operate in."
Chancellor George Osborne announced today that he was cutting corporation tax from 22% to 21% from April 2014. "This is the lowest rate of any major western economy," he said.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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