Hermes pays fund managers 5.5m (€8.97m)

Three fund managers at Hermes, one of the City's leading corporate governance activists, were paid 5.5m (€8.97m) last year and remain entitled to at least 2.3m under a long-term incentive plan.

Stephen Brown, Peter Butler and David Pitt-Watson are directors of Hermes Lens Asset Managers, which lobbies for change after taking stakes in companies it deems undervalued.

Brown was paid 905,600 last year, including a bonus of 481,000 Butler received 895,500, including a bonus of 481,000, while Pitt Watson earned 951,460, including a bonus of 866,500.

All three are also entitled to payments under a five-year, long-term incentive plan, which was put in place when the fund launched in 1998. Alistair Ross Goobey, chairman of parent company Hermes Pensions Management, said the plan had been put in place to lure staff.