North-east entrepreneur Stewart Milne has taken a pay cut – but still earned a total of £824,000 from his building company during the year to June 30.
The figure was revealed in the latest annual accounts, just released by Companies House, for housebuilder Stewart Milne Group. Mr Milne, the Westhill firm’s chairman and chief executive saw the value of his annual pay package drop from £865,000 in 2011-12.
Both years’ figures are a far cry from the period just before the financial crisis and its devastating impact on UK construction.
In 2007, the year before the credit crunch hit, Mr Milne rewarded himself with more than £7.5million in salary, benefits and dividends. This was already down by more than £2.5million on the previous year.
The latest pay deal for Mr Milne, who is also chairman of Aberdeen Football Club, came as his company suffered pre-tax losses of £5.7million.
This was compared with profits of £486,000 the year before, while total turnover fell by around £57million to just over £211million.
But the firm incurred exceptional one-off costs of £13.8million and this, combined with interest charges, resulted in the heavy losses.
A report on the financial performance in the Press and Journal last week came with bullish comments from Mr Milne about the company’s prospects.
He said the group was poised to take on hundreds of new people over the next couple of years as it starts work on thousands of new homes.
Mr Milne added: “We are financially robust and with the improving market conditions are well positioned to capitalise on growth opportunities throughout 2014 and beyond with a strong balance sheet.”
Earlier this month, the group secured a £225million finance facility with Bank of Scotland that will support the creation of more than 5,000 new homes in the UK over the next few years.