Philip Yea, the new chief executive of quoted private equity group 3i, is in line for share options of as much as £3.6m (€5.4m) a year on top of his annual pay package of up to £1.9m.

Yea, who was hired in April from under the nose of British Land, the UK property group, is being given options with a face value of up to six times his £600,000 base pay.