Angela Ahrendts is returning to her US homeland after nine years with Burberry. Photograph: Daniel Deme/EPA
Burberry has finally confirmed that its chief executive, Angela Ahrendts, has left the company – but has held on to two share bonuses worth up to £6.2m even though they were not due to pay out until next month.
In a statement on its website, the company revealed that Ahrendts, who is heading off to Apple, will also receive her annual cash bonus, worth up to £2.1m, and her £1m salary, potentially taking her payout in the final year of her employment to more than £9m.
She will lose out on a string of other share bonuses due to mature over the next few years and worth about £17m at the current share price.
Her departure also adds the role of chief executive to creative head Christopher Bailey's job title, a move which has proved controversial with some investors. Bailey, who has worked at Burberry since 2001, has had an increasingly influential role at the FTSE 100 company but has never led a major firm before.
Burberry's confirmation of the terms of Ahrendt's departure comes after weeks of speculation over the payouts as Burberry refused to confirm a departure date, leading to speculation that there was internal debate over whether she should receive the bonuses. As recently as last week Burberry was refusing to confirm a leaving date for Ahrendts despite her new boss Tim Cook of Apple announcing that she was due to begin work this week in Cupertino, California. Ahrendts resigned in October and completed her six-month notice period in April.
Burberry's board has decided to let Ahrendts, who helped continue a revival of the British designer label, retain a 112,500-share bonus relating to performance since 2009 and an undisclosed portion of a further share bonus relating to the company's performance since 2011 of up to 300,252 shares, both of which were not due to vest until next month, after her departure. In a statement about the awards on its website, Burberry said the payments were being made because Ahrendts had completed the three-year performance periods which the share payouts related to.
Ahrendts, who is returning to her US homeland after nine years with Burberry, will also receive a cash payment equivalent to the value of dividends which would have been received on those shares.
Ahrendts' departure package is unusual, as often new employers take responsibility for compensating executives for awards they give up by leaving their previous job. Apple has not revealed the terms of her new contract, but Ahrendts is likely to add to her riches with a considerable signing-on fee. When Apple recruited former Dixons boss John Browett to run the technology company's stores in 2012, the British executive was handed a golden hello of Apple shares worth $57m (£34.7m), to be paid out to him over a five-year period. However Browett left Apple after just six months, walking away with $3m (£1.7m).
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