CLOSE-UP: LIVE ISSUE/REWARDS PACKAGES - Holding company chiefs cash in despite ad slump.(Brief Article)

The salaries and bonuses of network heads continue to increase.

When UK public companies in the marketing sector introduced substantial profit-sharing bonuses into their bosses' reward packages a few years ago, one could have been forgiven for thinking that their basic earnings would thereafter remain broadly in line with inflation. Think again.

While none of the top bosses enjoyed any profit-sharing bonus for the past year, several of them did enjoy chunky increases in their core remuneration.

Not least was Cordiant's chief executive, Michael Bungey. His basic package of salary, pension and benefits went up by 16 per cent to pounds 821,000, while the company incurred a pounds 278 million loss after writing off the cost of over-priced acquisitions made during Bungey's period in office.

To be fair, Bungey can argue that some of the 16 per cent increase was owing to 'US tax equalisation' arrangements and abnormal pension contributions, but the fact remains that his core package cost 16 per cent more last year than the year before.

Bungey was not alone, however. The Incepta Group chairman, David Wright, enjoyed a 16.1 per cent increase, albeit from a much lower base than Bungey.

And the Aegis Group's Doug Flynn enjoyed an extra 7.7 per cent - including a massive pounds 270,000 pension scheme contribution - at a time when the company incurred a loss of pounds 7 million.