REUTERS/Nick Ansell/pool
Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis poses with his Order of the British Empire (OBE) award after an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London February 13, 2015.
Lewis has landed a £19.2 million bonus after hitting "certain non-financial metrics" linked to the sale of his website to price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com 3 years ago.
A journalist by trade, Lewis set up MoneySavingExpert.com in 2003 to give people advice on how to save money on bills and advertise good deals. The hugely popular site gets around 15 million users a month.
In September 2012, Lewis sold the website to Moneysupermarket.com for a total of £87 million. The deal saw Lewis receive £35 million cash upfront in addition to 22.1 million shares in Moneysupermarket.com and £27 million in future payments.
That final £27 million chunk has on Friday been unlocked, although Lewis hasn't nabbed all of it as it was performance linked. Moneysupermarket is paying a total of £20.6 million in bonuses to MoneySavingExpert.com staff, with the lion's share going to Lewis.
Lewis, who remained editor in chief of MoneySavingExpert.com after the sale, is now taking on the role of executive chairman at the site.
He says in a statement: "Over the last three years, MoneySavingExpert has continued to thrive and grow, cutting millions of people's bills and fighting their corner. I am as excited as ever for the future of the site.
"On the back of receiving this payment the charity, Citizens Advice, will receive another £1 million. Also from my existing charity fund, both the Trussell Trust and the Personal Finance Education Group will get £500,000 to fund their important work in financial triage and education."
MoneySupermarket.com also put out a trading update on Friday. Here are the highlights, which cover the three months to September 30:
- MoneySupermarket.com revenues up 14% on last year to £67 million.
- MoneySavingExpert.com revenues up 41% on last year to £8.5 million.
- TravelSupermarket.com revenues up 16% to £7.2 million.
- Group revenues up 14% to £76.2 million.