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Pluthero rings up rewards as CWW soars on bid hope
Feb 13, 2012 (Daily Mail - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
FORMER boss John Pluthero could be a big winner if Vodafone goes ahead with a bid for battered business communications group Cable & Wireless Worldwide.
Pluthero is listed in the latest annual report as owning more than 3.2m shares in CWW.
Assuming he has not sold any, he would have made a paper gain of around pounds sterling 300,000 yesterday, as the price leapt by 44pc to 28.54p after Voda confirmed it is considering a bid.
He may be in line for more from shares held in options and incentive schemes.
Pluthero, who was rewarded to the tune of pounds sterling 10m for supposedly turning around the beleaguered telecoms business, announced his departure from the company in November.
However, he is still technically employed on a pounds sterling 600,000 a year salary until the end of March.
Sources said Pluthero has stayed on in order to help his successor, Gavin Darby.
They added that Darby has felt no great need to draw on Pluthero's wisdom.
CWW declined to comment on the possible bid that could value the bombed out company at upwards of pounds sterling 700m.
Vodafone, which has a pounds sterling 6bn warchest for acquisitions, has until March 12 to make a formal offer.
CWW's main attraction for Voda is thought to be its Obackhaul network' D the fixed lines over which mobile phone calls must travel at some point.
At the moment Voda rents fixed lines and could make cost savings if it owned them.
Tim Daniels, an analyst at Olivetree Securities, said a deal could make sense for Vodafone, up 1.75p at 174.4p because it had no fixed-line network in Britain, in contrast with many other markets where it had integrated fixed and wireless networks.
He added that CWW's big corporate clients are also a draw. Other observers, however, pointed out that the cost of fixed line access is coming down.
CWW was formed out of the old Cable & Wireless group, whose origins date back to the 1850s.
In 2010 CWW span off from sister company Cable & Wireless plc, which, confusingly, is the overseas mobile and broadband business.
Pluthero, who had been boss of Cable & Wireless before it demerged and then chairman of CWW, stepped into the role of chief executive for four months last year.
He departed again rapidly amid a welter of losses and write-downs.
___ (c)2012 the Daily Mail (London, ) Visit the Daily Mail (London, ) at
www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html Distributed by MCT Information Services
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