Burberry CEO Rose Marie Bravo, has cashed in stock options this week worth 8.2 million pounds, according to the company. Bravo, who is paid in dollars, received the options as part of a bonus plan when the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2002, a Burberry spokeswoman said. She still holds 2.5 million Burberry shares, worth almost 11 million pounds.

Burberry said in a statement that Bravo had chosen to take advantage of a new co-investment plan for senior management and company directors that is partly intended as an incentive to keep executives. Bravo agreed to invest $1.3 million, her bonus last year, buying shares in the co-investment plan. The company will match that investment up to 1.6 times the initial sum. For example, for every 100 shares an investor would receive 160.

The plan does not vest for another three years, which means that Bravo would have to remain at Burberry for at least that period to get the full benefit. That might dampen speculation that Bravo would leave Burberry and return to the U.S. - possibly as a successor to Paul Charron, chairman and ceo of Liz Claiborne Inc., whose contract expires on Dec. 31, 2006. Bravo has renewed her contract until June 2006, after which she will be on a 12-month contract.

Bravo has increased Burberry's market share tenfold since arriving eight years ago. Burberry, which reported a 9.6 percent sales boost to 113.7 million pounds, in the first quarter ended June 30, will open its first store in Turkey at the end of August.