HP’s chief executive Mark Hurd has been handed a $42.5m (£30.8m) annual pay package after delivering three years of above-par growth for the technology giant.

Since Hurd took the reins from Carly Fiorina in 2005, HP has ousted Dell from the top of the global PC standings, tripled its profits and added more than $30bn in sales.

For this “exceptional and sustained” performance, Hurd snagged $23.9m in performance-based cash bonuses in 2008, according to a regulatory filing.

This comprises a $5.3m bonus and $18.6m in non-equity incentive plan compensation and is almost twice the $13.3m bonus he netted the previous year.

Hurd also pulled in $12.9m in stock awards and $1.5m in salary and $4.2m in option awards, pension payments and expenses.

HP achieved a 19 per cent year-on-year rise in sales to $33.6bn in its fiscal fourth quarter to 31 October and Hurd claimed it had been a solid performance.

Still, even HP has been hit by the slowdown with recent Gartner figures showing the vendor suffered its lowest year-on-year growth in PC sales in the final calendar quarter of 2008.

According to the market watcher, HP shipped 19.1 per cent of all PCs during the quarter, up from 18.7 per cent a year earlier.