Payday at Mitchells & Butlers

The boardroom ructions at Mitchells & Butlers were among the messiest the City has seen in many years and, at least from the point of view of institutional shareholders such as Standard Life and groups such as the Association of British Insurers, the good guys lost. The digested read is that the M&B board claimed a small band of billionaire investors were working together to take control of the business. The chairman, Simon Laffin, booted out four directors he feared were working with the billionaires, led by Joe Lewis. The billionaires said they were doing nothing wrong and the takeover panel, its hands tied by some seemingly arcane rules, agreed. Laffin was then axed and new directors, of whom the billionaires approved, were installed. They then decided to reward themselves with much bigger salaries than their predecessors. Today the new board thanked the four directors Laffin had fired – Denis Jackson, Ray MacSharry, Richard McGuire and Douglas E McMahon – and handed out some more cash towards their "personal costs and expenses". They are believed to be getting about £30,000 each. Quite extraordinary, really.