Remuneration

Why Institutions Cannot Control Pay

An interesting recent article in the Financial Times FTfm supplement helped to explain why pay is so out of control in public companies. In an interview with Rakhi Kumar of State Street Global Advisors, she made it plain what the problem is. State Street may not be a household name in the UK, but they are one of the world’s largest fund managers. Fourth in size behind only Blackrock, Vanguard and UBS according to Wikipedia. Last year State Street had more than ...

BP PLC Remuneration Policy – ShareSoc’s comments prior to the AGM

In preparation to BP’s AGM tomorrow (17th May 2017), ShareSoc's Remuneration spokesman has prepared this post on the company’s remuneration policy and many other issues. Overall, the changes proposed by the Company,should be considered positive. The discontinuation of the matching share awards and simplification is particularly welcomed, as is the downward discretion applied by the remuneration committee during the year to reduce pay. However, even after the reduction Dudley’s aggregate incentive forward-looking opportunity could still be deemed to be excessive at 725% of ...

Pearson Pay Vote Lost

Shareholders in Pearson (PSON) yesterday rejected the Remuneration Report on a vote at the company's AGM. That was by 61% opposed to 32% supporting with 6% abstaining. But they approved the Remuneration Policy. Opposition to the Report seemed to be based on the fact that CEO John Fallon achieved a 20% rise in total pay despite a record loss and several profit warnings. However the share price rose on the day substantially by 12% perhaps because of a positive first quarter trading statement ...

Rolls-Royce – Audits Investigated and AGM

Yesterday (4/5/2017) I attended the Rolls-Royce (RR.) Annual General Meeting in Derby. In former years they used to hold the meetings in London but it’s been Nottingham and Derby...

A General Election – What Should Be In the Manifestos?

There is to be a General Election on the 8th June in case you have not heard. That has the unfortunate consequence on freezing Government business, with the prospect of changes of Ministers thereafter. Any formal consultations - for example on improved Corporate Governance and remuneration restraints - will be deferred. So the key question now is what would we like to see in the manifestos of the leading political parties? Here's my list: A commitment to ensure that private shareholders in ...

BP – Pay Cut or Downward Discretion

I seem to be spending a lot of time talking about pay at companies of late. It would be better if we could concentrate on more important matters, like their strategy, the lack of productivity in UK companies, how they are revising their plans to cope with Brexit and exchange rate changes, and all those other matters that affect shareholder returns. But it seems everyone wants to talk about pay. So here's the latest story. The BP Annual Report has been published ...

Perverse LTIPs and Alliance Trust (ATST)

Hard Hitting BEIS Report on Corporate Governance and Pay

The BEIS Commons Select Committee have today published a strongly worded report on Corporate Governance after its recent hearings on the subject. Here are some of the key points they make: They agree with the Prime Minister that high levels of executive pay need to be tackled "for the benefit of society as a whole". They forcefully recommend that Long Term Incentive Plans (LTIPs) should be abolished as soon as possible because they create perverse incentives and are often a way ...

Fat Cats on Diet?

There was a good article in the Daily Telegraph this morning in which I was quoted. It was headlined "Will the fat cats finally be put on a diet by shareholders?" and gave an overview of the attempts to rein in executive remuneration and the likely impact this year. But I expressed scepticism to the reporter and this is what it printed: "Roger Lawson, deputy chairman of ShareSoc, which speaks on behalf of thousands of retail investors in the UK, argues that an ...

Persimmon AGM Voting Recommendations

ShareSoc has issued the following press release: ShareSoc is opposed to the Remuneration Policy of Persimmon Plc. We therefore recommend VOTING AGAINST the Persimmon AGM resolutions as follows: Remuneration Policy (Resolution No. 2), Remuneration Report (No. 3), Remuneration Committee Chair Jonathan Davie (No. 8) and the 2017 Performance Share Plan (No. 14). How can the Remuneration Report almost completely ignore the existing LTIP awards? There is no mention of the £100 million share scheme for Persimmon CEO Fairburn in the new remuneration policy, ...

Crest Nicholson Lose Pay Vote

Builder Crest Nicholson (CRST) lost the Remuneration Report vote at their AGM yesterday with 58% opposed (107 million votes against plus another 5 million withheld on a 74% turnout). This may be the first of a number in this year's AGM season. However they won the Remuneration Policy vote. The company expressed their disappointment on the advisory vote on the Remuneration Report and suggested it was profit before tax target for the 2017-19 LTIP. They reduced the target because they do not ...

Pay Revolts and Rolls-Royce Voting Recommendations

According to a number of press reports we seem to be heading into the AGM season with another year of pay revolts. There are also rumours that Mrs May is to proceed with introducing annual pay votes. Chris Cummings, CEO of the Investment Association, writing for the Guardian said "Too many people still feel they are not sharing this country's prosperity. Companies can either act responsibly now and shape a more responsible 21st-century corporate Britain or they can carry on as before ...