OWEN KILLIAN was no doubt champing at the bit this morning waiting for the merged IAWS-Hiestand food group to make its stock market bow.

Using the name Aryzta - apparently it is derived from Latin and means the apex of a single ear of wheat - the new company was due to debut in Dublin and Zurich with a share price of about €34. Killian has promised to double earnings over the next five years, which will please investors. Not unreasonably, Killian stands to gain personally from any future success of Aryzta, which has put in place an attractive, 10-year, long-term incentive plan for its key executives.

Killian earned a tasty €1.6 million from IAWS last year.

Interestingly, he was also paid a fee of about €77,000 by Hiestand as a non-executive director. IAWS was a large investor in Hiestand pre the recent merger.

We assume this fee will be one of the many savings that will be effected by the merger. For Killian, it will be a case of (some mild) short-term pain for (potentially massive) long-term gain.