Vodafone CEO's pay hits £14 million for 2012

Vodafone's Chief Executive Vittorio Colao takes part in a CMT meeting at 'Casa Llotja de Mar' in Barcelona December 9, 2008.

LONDON (Reuters) - Vodafone Chief Executive Vittorio Colao will receive 14 million pounds in 2012 through a mix of salary, bonus and share options after steering the world's largest mobile phone operator through tough conditions to hit targets.

The issue of executive pay has hit the headlines in Britain with talk of a so-called "shareholder spring" breaking out after investors rebelled over pay deals at companies including Barclays, Inmarsat, Prudential and Aviva.

But Colao may be spared the same fate as he is deemed to have mostly done a good job at Vodafone, helping the mobile giant to outperform rivals by chasing growth in emerging markets to offset weak consumer spending in Europe.

The British-based group took a 4 billion pound writedown on the value of its European business in May and cut its medium-term sales target, but the shares rose on the day as Vodafone promised to continue to pay a large dividend.

Colao took over as chief executive in July 2008 and set about a new strategy of selling stakes in businesses it did not control in France, China and Poland, enabling the group to return much of the cash to investors. The share price is up 31 percent since he took charge.

The group said in its annual report published on Friday that Colao would receive just over 3 million pounds in salary and bonus and 11 million pounds in a long-term share plan that pays out this year.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by David Cowell)