Rear Window
IAG’s sacked lawyer Peter Horton out millions
Myriam RobinRear Window editorThe shock, forced departure of top legal beagle Peter Horton from insurer IAG continues to reverberate through the industry. And as far as it regards his future net worth, it’s worse than we thought.
Peter Horton fell short of IAG’s expectations to be “inclusive and respectful”. Bloomberg
At the time of the last annual report, Horton was working towards bonus shares worth almost $3 million on the day his departure was announced. This is what was written up when he left the firm.
This week, however, IAG informed the market of its cancellation of some 640,00 bonus shares and performance rights. These all related to Horton and, if paid out, would have been worth $3.8 million on the day he left, which is rather more than first figured.
Horton, of course, also lost out on a $900,000-a-year fixed salary and STI payments that added another $250,000 to the total.
Few are certain as to what precisely prompted Horton’s axing, beyond the company’s official statement that referred to his having fallen short of expectations to be “inclusive and respectful”.
As a result of this and the company’s apparently zero-tolerance approach, IAG is out its top lawyer amid its involvement in at least 10 cases just in the Federal Court.
At least Horton’s abrupt sacking means his departure hasn’t dragged on.
In 2018, weeks before the commencement of the insurance round of the banking royal commission, the exit of then-IAG group general counsel Chris Bertuch was revealed by this column, which wrote that his earlier leave of absence would become permanent.
The company responded by saying it was in discussions about Bertuch’s return date, only to confirm his departure on amiable terms a week later.
And that’s how you turn a one-day story into one we’re still mentioning five years later...
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