Manx Telecom chief executive Gary Lamb was paid nearly £400,000 in salary and a bonus during the last financial year.

The company’s annual report reveals that Mr Lamb, 51, picked up a total pay packet of £290,000 during the financial year 2017.

This was boosted by a bonus of £106,720 which equates to 36.8 per cent of his salary.

But the 110 page report also reveals that Mr Lamb’s remuneration hits £627,340 if the following are included, Benefits (£15,048), Pension (£29,000) and long term incentives (£186,572).

Benefits ‘typically’ provided by the company include car allowance, medical insurance and death and disability insurance.

The pension payment is said to be a company contribution to a money purchase pension scheme or provision of cash allowance in lieu of pension at the request of the individual.

The annual bonus is said to encourage and reward delivery of the company’s operational objectives.

And long term incentives are said to be annual awards of performance shares.

Mr Lamb is also a non executive director of kettle safety control company, Strix. According to AIM-listed Strix’s annual report Mr Lamb will ‘continue to receive a fee of £70,000 per annum for serving as chairman of the board’.

Strix’s remuneration committee is also chaired by Mr Lamb who used to be the finance and IT director of Strix before leaving in 2007.

Meanwhile Manx Telecom’s annual meeting is due to take place on Wednesday June 13 at MT’s base at Isle of Man Business Park.

The company is registered on the AIM market at the London Stock Exchange.

The remuneration report also notes the departure of former chief financial officer Danny Bakshi.

It says his employment terminated in October 2017. In addition to his 2017 salary of £158,315 Mr Bakshi also received a payment totalling £38,000 which related to two months’ pay in lieu of notice.

‘His entitlement to a £100,000 recruitment award, all outstanding long-term incentive awards and, entitlement to 2017 annual bonus lapsed on termination of employment,’ the report notes.

Isle of Man Newspapers had previously interviewed Mr Bakshi when he spoke of his relief after he was acquitted of importing a package of cannabis from Amsterdam.

He said he was looking forward to rebuilding his life back in the UK with his wife and family.

He said at the time: ‘My reputation has taken a big knock. It’s been a very stressful time for me, my wife and my family. I can now get my life back together.’

Among the non-executive directors, chairman Kevin Walsh received £90,000 in salary and fees.

Independent director Jeffrey Hume received £53,000. And independent director Chris Hall, a former Manx Telecom boss, was awarded £44,667.

The remuneration committee is chaired by Mr Hall who explains that Mr Lamb’s bonus amounted to 36 .8 per cent of his salary when there is a ‘maximum opportunity’ to award up to 100 per cent of salary.

Further to Manx Telecom’s full year financial results, published in March, the company’s annual report and accounts are said to reflect a solid performance for 2017, and that the company – and its customers – are starting to see the benefits of investment in its Transformation Programme.

The transformation programme has seen the implementation of IT systems and improvements in internal processes and organisational structure, all of which will enable the company, it claims, to deliver even better products, services, and support.

Other 2017 highlights include:

Vannin Ventures, the Telecom subsidiary established to identify new long-term growth opportunities, announced its majority shareholding in a new company, Goshawk Communications Limited, that will provide pioneering technology to help mobile phone users who have hearing impairments.

The company launched its Smartroam tariffs, and became the first Isle of Man operator to offer pay monthly customers inclusive roaming within the UK and EU.

Announcement of Fibre-to-the-Premises investment that will deliver ultrafast broadband download speeds of up to 1Gbps in more than 70 locations around the island, including all major business districts and industrial estates.

In his review Mr Lamb says underlying profit after tax decreased to £15.1m (2016: £16.3m) as a result of a lower underlying EBITDA and increased depreciation. He said underlying diluted earnings per share was therefore reduced to 13.15 pence per share (2016: 14.26 pence). Reported profit after tax increased year-on-year to £11.9m (2016: £8.8m), primarily due to a non-recurring £1.3m loss on the revaluation on property costs in the prior year and a £0.8m profit on interest rate swaps (2016: £1.2m loss).