HR Owen, the luxury car dealer, has granted a share option worth £2.25 million as a performance-related incentive to new chief executive Andy Duncan.

The option of 2.36m ordinary shares in the publicly listed dealer group at 95.2p per share is conditional on share price growth over the next four years and on Duncan buying and holding £100,000 of shares in the company.

Duncan, a former Channel 4 TV boss who joined HR Owen in October, won't be able to exercise the option unless the share price has grown from 81.4p to at least 122p in four years time, and won't be able to get the full 2.36m shares unless the share price has risen by 200%.

"The performance targets are, in the opinion of the remuneration committee, extremely stretching," said HR Owen.