Taylor due $1.5m on quitting Tower

Keith Taylor, who has presided over Tower Group's turnaround during the past two years, is stepping down at the end of the month, with a $1.5 million termination payment.

The 52-year-old has been at Tower for 25 years and will be succeeded as group managing director by Jim Minto, who heads Tower Australia.

Tower's chairman, Olaf O'Duill, and Tony Gibbs, director of its major shareholder GPG, paid tribute yesterday to Taylor's role in the company's return to profitability after losses in 2002 and 2003.

Taylor took over from James Boonzaier as acting chief executive in July 2002 and was appointed group managing director in April 2003.

He said he had achieved what he had been employed to do during 2 1/2 years, leading the recovery and rebuilding of Tower to the stage where it could move on to the next phase.

Another stage of the recovery is largely complete with shareholders last week approving the spin-off Australian Wealth Management. O'Duill said that once this was complete Tower would have no bank debt and "a substantial cash kitty with which to have a good look at the marketplace".

Taylor's termination payment is likely to be scrutinised by shareholders, especially as Tower remunerations practices have come under fire in the past.

Brook Asset Management's Simon Botherway said: "All termination payments are of interest to us. We would clearly be interested in the details."