L’Oréal chief to hand back stock-options

L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon has announced that he will hand back half the stock-options he received in 2010 and that the French firm will stop using them altogether.

Speaking in an interview with with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Agon stated the decision will see L’Oréal switch to a ‘more transparent and less uncertain’ (translated – original interview in French) form of incentivising based on performance awarding free shares to managers when goals are met.

The L’Oréal boss currently holds 400,000 stock-options with an estimated value of €6.8m, which Agon insists is irrelevant until he exercises the options.

Agon will return half of the options and “keep 200 000 in order to share a performance dynamic with our stockholders.”