PRESS RELEASE 62 (28/11/2014)
On the 15th December BG Group have called an EGM at which shareholders are being asked to vote in favour of an outsized pay package for incoming CEO, Helge Lund.
Mr Lund was previously CEO of Statoil, a company which turned over £57bn in 2013, compared with £12bn for BG Group. At Statoil, Mr Lund’s total taxable remuneration in 2013 was £1.3m. BG Group are now proposing a package with a base salary of £1.5m and annual and long-
There is no evidence that such outsize pay and bonus awards lead to improved performance. On the contrary, this report from the High Pay Commission, shows that high pay is negatively correlated with company performance: http://highpaycentre.org/blog/cambridge-
ShareSoc urges all BG Group shareholders to put their foot down and vote against this proposed resolution. We cannot succumb to the blackmail implicit in the statement included in the circular that: “Mr Lund is not obliged to join BG Group if the Conditional Share Award is not approved by shareholders”. We support ShareAction’s call to pension fund holders to press their fund managers to hold BG Group’s directors to account:http://shareaction.org/shareaction-
For further information, please contact:
Mark Bentley,
Director, ShareSoc
Telephone: 01582 526174
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Postscript: BG Group soon did an about face on this matter and called off the EGM. See this blog page for ShareSoc’s comments: http://sharesoc.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/sharesoc-