Cable & Wireless (C&W) today risked re-igniting shareholder anger after its full-year results revealed that the UK telecoms group had inflated its controversial senior executives' bonus pool by a further £27 million.

The company disclosed the additional fillip, which brings the total bonus pool to £54 million, when it announced a 23 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £605 million for the 12 months to March, 31, 2008. Annual revenues fell 5.9 per cent to £3.2 billion as the group targeted higher-margin customers.

Subject to hitting profits and share price targets, senior managers at C&W will receive two sets of bonus payouts, one next March and a second at the same time the following year.

John Pluthero, group managing director, who runs C&W's UK and international businesses, is one of about 40 senior managers who stand to reap the bonus payments under a private-equity-like reward plan first put in place in January 2006.

C&W had a series of bruising encounters with corporate governance groups and some long-term shareholders last year when it tried to remove any cap on the potential payouts. Shareholders eventually waved the move through at the annual meeting.

Richard Lapthorne, chairman of C&W, has a separate share-based pay deal that could be worth more than £11 million over three years.

Details of the size of the pot this year emerged as increasingly activist investors register protest votes about controversial retention bonuses paid or planned at Shell, the oil and gas giant, and GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceuticals group.

HSBC is facing shareholder protests over the structure of its bonus arrangements at its annual investor meeting at the end of the month.

C&W managers have to beat a set of performance hurdles, based on cost of capital, in order to qualify for the cash bonus and ensure that the share price hits specified targets.

A spokesman stressed that the performance criteria are still in place. It is by no means certain managers will receive a share of the full pot, he said.

He also noted that executives had had their salaries fixed when the bonus plan was put in place. Mr Pluthero fixed his annual salary at £600,000.

Current management has turned around the C&W business, adding about £1. 2 billion to the market value of the company, he said.

Mr Lapthorne used today's results to confirm that C&W will consider options for splitting its UK and international business this year. The company is also exploring options to remove risks in its pension scheme, including a potential buyout by a specialist insurer.

Shares rose 3.5p to 156p in early deals. They have fallen 16 per cent from highs of more than 185p at the beginning of the year.

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