SAGA staff were poised for a windfall yesterday following the sale of the holidays-to-financial services group in a £1.35bn management buyout.

The bonus, which will see workers receive £1,000 for every year of service, comes after chairman Roger De Haan agreed to share some of the sale proceeds.

Staff will also become shareholders in the company, which was sold to the management team and private equity group Charterhouse.

The move ends a long-running process during which Saga considered stock market flotation.

Mr De Haan, whose family will pick up the majority of the proceeds, said it was a close-run decision to choose a sale, but said the management buyout represented the best interests of shareholders, employees and customers.

Saga, which was taken private in 1991, employs about 2,500 people and earlier this year announced annual turn-over of £382.7m and profits of £81.6m.

As well as a leading magazine, it has a database of eight million current and potential customers and near-universal brand awareness among its target market. Sidney De Haan set up the business from a hotel in Folkestone, Kent, in 1951.