Britain's EMI Group Plc yesterday announced the resignation of music chief James Fifield at a cost of sterling £12 million amid a round of musical chairs at the company.
EMI said it would pay Fifield - nicknamed "Lucky Jim" as one of Britain's top-paid executives - £6.27 million for the early termination of his contract and £6.15 million in pension contributions.
As a result, the company said it would take a charge against its earnings for the year to March 31 1998 due to Fifield's early departure. EMI's shares fell nearly 3 per cent, dropping 12.5 pence to 470p by 1445 GMT.
Fifield, whose contract was due to expire next year, had been widely expected to leave EMI after the company's board unexpectedly blocked his promotion to group chief executive in February.
An American widely credited with building EMI into a global music giant over the past 10 years, Fifield had been seen as the frontrunner to take over the day-to-day running of EMI as chairman Colin Southgate moved to a non-executive role.
But Southgate - the newly-appointed chairman of the Royal Opera House in London - apparently changed his mind at the last minute and decided to stay on as executive chairman of EMI, one industry source claimed at the time.
"Jim Fifield has made a tremendous contribution to EMI Music . . . We wish him well," Southgate said in a statement.
Based in New York, Fifield will turn 56 next month. His plans for the future are not known at this stage.
EMI, with a stable of top pop groups ranging from The Beatles to The Spice Girls, is essentially a specialised music company since it spun off its retail HMV and Dillons divisions earlier this year.
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