Wizz Air boss Joszef Varadi has long been a staunch defender of capitalism. In the last year, the airline executive took aim at London market’s “socialistic” corporate governance rules, courted controversy for telling fatigued staff to go the “extra mile,” and fought back against investors who objected to his £100m bonus scheme. All three stances were likely to provoke a debate but at a time when City chiefs are under fire for hefty pay packets, it is Varadi’s bumper payout that has drawn the most scrutiny.
Shareholder backlash and media criticism has followed the news – but he’s not bothered. “We have a holistic approach that remunerates not only the chief executive, but leadership, management of the company, as well as all the employees,” Varadi tells City A.M.
in an interview. “So that all kind of cascades down every employee of the company..
. everyone benefits from a scheme like this.” The collosal payout would be one of the biggest in the London Stock Exchange’s history but it is by no means guaranteed.
For Varadi to receive the award, Wizz Air’s share price must hit £120 before 2028. It closed at £21 on Tuesday. Aside from trickling down to Wizz employees, Varadi told City A.
M. the award was justifiable given the amount of shareholder value he would need to create to qualify; around £10bn. “This is like a commission rate of one per cent.
I mean, who the hell would give you money for one per cent. You go to any of the banks, they will ch.
