Salary very definitely negotiable.German power As fast as the Americans quit the UK electricity business, the Continentals arrive. The perks associated with a US-style compensation package, even one emerging out of Chapter 11, come extra, natch.Sir Neville Sims, the International Power chairman, gulped at the mere thought of attempting to match what was on offer Stateside and sent Mr Crane on his way with the usual guff about what a pleasure it had been etc, etc.Back then to the drawing board for the headhunters Spencer Stuart. When he took up the job in January, it did not take his Havard-educated brain long to work out that the way things were going at International Power, the sensible thing to do was ask for a “traditional” salary enabling him to pay for the groceries in cash and not share certificates.Unfortunately, pay rates in British utilities are not what they used to be and the fat cats of yesteryear have long since made way for a new breed of executives who have had to get used to rubbing along on much more modest packages.Too modest, clearly, for Mr Crane who told his employers yesterday that he had decided to triple his £500,000-a-year basic by joining a bankrupted energy company back home. The experiment ended in disaster after two years with the share price off by some 70 per cent and Mr Giller seriously out of pocket.He was kicked upstairs to the job of deputy chairman on a flat cash salary while the housing allowance which had funded a rather nice Docklands apartment also came to an end.His replacement, an American attorney called David Crane, has lasted an even shorter period of time. But for how long will he have its trust?The Crane drainInternational Power likes to buck the trend.

Whereas the fashion these days is to get into trouble for paying chief executives too much, International Power’s problem is that it cannot pay them enough.Its first chief executive, an entertaining German by the name of Peter Giller, created UK corporate history by becoming the only head of a major quoted company to be paid entirely in shares. Why, Carlton’s Sir Brian Pitman and John McGrath could even stay on as non-execs despite the two fingers they had initially stuck up to the rebel shareholders. The word yesterday was that the two men would swallow their pride and accept the invitation, but only to ensure that the interests of Carlton shareholders were not ridden roughshod over entirely.As for Mr Allen, he enjoys the support of Fidelity for now. All in the name of good corporate governance, of course.Fidelity’s quiet assassin Anthony Bolton was being magnanimous in victory yesterday, suggesting that Carlton might appoint another exec to the board to replace Mr Green No hard feelings. But since he advised it on the takeover of Forte and has known Mr Allen for years, Fidelity really ought to ask itself hard questions about whether Mr Nelson really fits the bill of an independent.

But even he must find it hard to believe just how fabulously the script has ended. With Mr Green gone, and three out of the four executive management positions at ITV plc occupied by Granada’s men, this becomes a takeover, not a merger. Ensconcing John Nelson as non-executive chairman would be the perfect epilogue for Granada. But it’s a funny old world is television and it is amazing how quickly the picture changed once Fidelity had been told what an asset Mr Allen would be to the merged company and how it was only his doing that the marriage was taking place at all.Mr Allen has survived a few scrapes, including the monkey business at ITV Digital. In the end, Michael Green did not make it to High Noon and his moment of destiny Charles Allen shot him in the back before he got there. The Granada board’s decision to support the appointment of an independent non-executive to chair ITV “in the interests of shareholders” killed what little chance the Carlton chairman had of seeing off Fidelity and its fellow rebel shareholders.