SIX directors at Man stand to earn up to $185m (£93m) over the next three years, cementing the listed hedge fund’s reputation as Britain’s “multi-millionaire factory”.

The huge shares, salary and option package has been awarded to the six directors who will head MF Global, its US-based broking business which will be demerged next month on to the New York stock exchange.

Kevin Davis, 46, MF Global’s British-born chief executive, is the biggest beneficiary. He will earn $1m a year and be awarded $25m of shares when the company is listed. In addition, he will earn a further $5m if the float goes well and be tied into a three-year performance package worth $30m.

These awards follow the $17m he received last year from Man, which included a $9m bonus payment. However, the staggering pay package is not out of line with rival broking houses at Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street institutions. One analyst said: “You have got to pay to keep the best talent”.

Another British director, Chris Smith, who is to become chief operating officer, is being awarded shares of $17.5m and options worth $25m. These can vest after three years and will be triggered if performance hurdles are reached. Four other directors – two of whom are British – will receive shares and options worth a combined $82m. These four individuals already received bonuses totalling $9.5m last year. They are Amy Butte, who was previously finance director of the New York Stock Exchange, Thomas Harte, Ira Polk, and Simon Healy.

Man has become one of Britain’s most profitable businesses and created more millionaires than nearly any other company. In status, it is equivalent to Australia’s Macquarie Bank, which has also earned a reputation as a millionaire factory. But the group’s explosive growth, particularly in MF Global, has also defied its critics. Ten years ago analysts at BZW, then owned by Barclays, put a value on the company of £75m. MF is now about to be demerged for more than £3 billion.

The huge payments to directors are revealed in a listing document that has been sent to America’s Securities and Exchange Commission. In it, it emerges that Alison Carnwath, a serial nonexecutive director who will chair MF, has been given shares worth $3m and will be paid $750,000 a year.

The document says: “In determining the terms of the proposal, we considered our desire to align Carnwath’s interests with those of our shareholders as well as the role we expect her to hold on the board.”

MF, which was previously known as Man Financial, took a step change in size when it bought parts of Refco, a rival New York brokerage house, two years ago when it was on the verge of going bust.

The firm, which is registered as a Bermu-dan company, employs 3,271 people in 12 countries and is now the world’s biggest financial-futures brokerage. In its last financial year it reported net income of $188m, up from $60m the previous year. This rise in profits is due to the huge demand for exchange-traded volume derivatives. Man is expected to retain a stake of about 20% following the demerger. Staff at the fast-growing British capital-markets arm of Icelandic bank Kaupthing could pocket £135m under a lucrative earnings scheme. Iceland’s largest bank has agreed to start payouts under the scheme from 2010. The potentially bumper payout is understood to be initially linked to the profits of the capital-markets business over an 18-month period to the end of December 2009.Under the plan, 60% of the payments would be made in 2010 with 20% paid in both 2011 and 2012.

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