The first rule of executive pay is that it should reward performance. Yet Stephen Elop, former chief executive of Nokia, is walking away from the telecoms group with a pay-off of €18.8m despite leaving the share price substantially lower than when he started three years ago.

The payout has caused a political storm in Finland, where Nokia’s success has been a source of pride even during the most difficult times. Conspiracy theories abound about whether he engineered the €5.4bn sale of Nokia’s handsets division to his former employer, Microsoft. As part of the deal, Mr Elop is going back to Microsoft and is being touted as a possible successor to Steve Ballmer, chief executive. Microsoft is so keen to get him back that it is footing two-thirds of the compensation package.

There is no evidence to support such claims – and all parties deny this. But there are grounds to question the justification of Mr Elop’s payout. Nokia argues that Mr Elop is contractually entitled to his windfall, triggered by a change-of-control clause after the Microsoft deal. Yet Mr Elop’s contract was amended during the disposal negotiations. The explanation for the change raises further questions, in particular over the conditions for the accelerated share award worth €14.6m. Moreover, the options are only worth anything thanks to the jump in the shares when the deal was announced. Under Mr Elop’s leadership before the deal, Nokia lost substantial market value.