Philip Bowman, the chief executive of Smiths Group, is offering top executives the opportunity to take part in a private equity-style incentive plan as part of a wide-ranging restructuring designed to spark a turnround at the engineering conglomerate.

Mr Bowman proposes to freeze the basic salaries of executive directors for at least two years. In exchange, directors will be able to take part in a one-off, long-term incentive plan that will pay out in Smiths shares if certain targets are exceeded. Participants will receive nothing if the targets are not met.