RE: off NEX29 Apr 2019 17:15
Robert Johan Henri Bonnier
Telecoms services provider
Age 29; valued at £11m
If you have ever used the freephone service Scoot to find a telephone number, rather than paying directory inquiries, you have indirectly contributed to the wealth of Robert Johan Henri Bonnier.
The Dutch-born British resident is chief executive of Freepages, the company which owns Scoot. It was valued at £200m by the Alternative Investment Market two years ago, making Bonnier - the man with the vision and, most importantly, the shares - worth at least £10m. He has eight other directorships related to the Freepages group.
Bonnier and his fellow executives stand to make themselves even richer: they are currently negotiating the possibility of swapping share options worth £10.8m which have yet to realise their value for options that are already showing a £2.85m profit.
The existing share options were issued in 1997 'in lieu of high salaries and bonuses that these key individuals could demand' but 'are no longer providing a sufficient incentive'. Bonnier could make as much as £2.5m within the next three years.
It will appeal to his entrepreneurial spirit, which first emerged at 14 when he started dabbling in the Amsterdam stock market. His original stake was a £600 compensation cheque for a botched operation after he broke his fingers playing football. He was immediately hooked: 'I was fascinated by corporate news from an early age. It wasn't the money side - it was what makes a business run and how people build companies,' he says.
School holidays were spent working on the Amsterdam stock exchange; his degree in business administration from Schiller International University was followed by three years in corporate finance at Swiss Bank Corporation in London. In London he met Chris Akers, who went on to become chairman of Leeds United. Akers introduced him to Nigel Robertson, one of a trio of businessmen who had come up with the idea of a freephone directory but needed backers. Bonnier became chief operating officer and has overseen the dramatic growth of the company.
Advertisement
Dutch publisher VNU increased its stake in Scoot's Dutch and French operations to 75 percent in an £8 million deal in December; Bonnier claims that Scoot will be bigger than Yellow Pages.
https://suite.endole.co.uk/insight/company/11867509-rrnb-capital-ltd
Interesting his name comes up under RRNB Capital and he has links to Akers
In London he met Chris Akers, who went on to become chairman of Leeds United. Akers introduced him to Nigel Robertson, one of a trio of businessmen who had come up with the idea of a freephone directory but needed backers. Bonnier became chief operating officer and has overseen the dramatic growth of the company.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
