* CEO gets deferred all-share bonus instead of 50 pct cash
* CEO bonus 1.57 million pounds, total pay 2.76 million
* CEO also gets 2 million stg shares under incentive plan * Shares down 0.1 percent
(Adds further detail, updates shares)
By Myles Neligan
LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - Britain's Prudential said chief executive Tidjane Thiam's 2010 bonus would be paid in deferred shares, rather than 50 percent cash, after the insurer racked up big costs in a failed bid for AIA last year.
Thiam, who faced pressure to quit after Prudential's $35.5 billion AIA bid collapsed last June, will receive a bonus of 1.57 million pounds ($2.52 million) in shares, deferred for three years, Britain's biggest insurer said on Thursday.
His maximum entitlement was 1.62 million pounds. Thiam would ordinarily have received half the bonus in cash, but agreed to take the full amount in deferred shares, Prudential said.
Thiam, who launched the AIA bid in February last year after less than six months in the top job, also picked up the maximum award of 2 million pounds in shares under the group's long-term incentive plan, based on its performance over the last three years.
Prudential's attempt to buy AIA fell through after investors baulked at the price, and AIA's U.S. parent then rejected a lower bid, leaving the insurer to shoulder costs of 377 million pounds.
The company has since sworn off big acquisitions, hiked its dividend, and set out ambitious cash generation and profit targets, partly dispelling shareholder anger over the botched deal.
Thiam's total salary, bonus and benefits package last year was worth 2.76 million pounds. The company's best-paid director was Clark Manning, head of its U.S. unit Jackson National Life, who had a total package worth 2.79 million pounds.
Prudential shares were down 0.8 percent at 715.25 pence by 1440 GMT, lagging the FTSE 100 share index, which was 0.3 percent higher. The stock climbed 4.3 percent last year, outperforming a 1.9 percent rise in the European insurance sector. ($1 = 0.6225 pound)