Former Wates CEO paid £1m compensation for ‘loss of office’

Former Wates chief executive David Allen was paid £992,000 in “compensation for loss of office”, Construction News can reveal.

Allen joined Wates as chief financial officer in 2016, before stepping up to chief executive in 2018. He departed suddenly last summer, leaving Philip Wainwright to head the company as interim before Eoghan O’Lionaird took over in February.

At the time Wates’ chairman, Sir James Wates, paid tribute to Allen’s “intelligence, commitment and compassion [which] has stood the organisation in good stead”. Wates has not commented on the reason for Allen’s departure.

Now Wates’ full company accounts for 2022 show its highest paid director – understood to be Allen – was paid £1.48m last year, with a £491,000 salary as well as £992,000 compensation payment for loss of office.

Allen’s payment in 2022 was only slightly smaller than his full 2021 remuneration of £1.58m, which was made up of a £614,000 salary and £967,000 paid through the group’s long-term incentive scheme.

Allen, who has now joined Mace as chief financial officer, did not provide a comment.

Elsewhere, Wates’ financial accounts reveal that its owners – the Wates family – were paid £17.5m in dividends last year, a five-fold increase from £3.2m in 2021. The figure is equivalent to just over half of Wates’ £33.7m profit for 2022.

Earlier this month O’Lionaird told CN he wants Wates to take on more large jobs – like the group’s £500m gigafactory project in Sunderland – and expects the group’s turnover to keep growing from its record £1.9bn last year.