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LONDON, June 26 (Reuters) - Shareholders decisively voted
down Tesco's remuneration report on Friday, as Britain's largest
retailer joined a growing list of big companies to be rebuked
over executive pay.
Supermarket group Tesco said 67.3% of votes cast at
its annual general meeting (AGM) were against the resolution to
approve the pay report, with only 32.7% in favour.
Several investor advisory groups had recommended
shareholders vote against the report ahead of the meeting.
They focused on the exclusion of online grocer Ocado
from peer benchmarking, which they said had inflated
one of the bonuses paid to departing chief executive Dave Lewis
by 1.6 million pounds ($1.98 million) to 2.4 million pounds.
Lewis received a total pay package of 6.4 million pounds for
2019-20 and Tesco has argued that Ocado is now more of a
technology company than a retailer and therefore no longer a
direct competitor to be benchmarked against.
Tesco, which said it was disappointed the advisory vote was
not passed, added that it had engaged with several large
investors and been reassured that the majority agreed the
overall outcome of the 2017 PSP (performance share plan) award
was proportionate given the turnaround management had delivered.
However, it recognised that a significant number of
shareholders had concerns and said its remuneration committee
would further engage with investors and consider feedback before
putting its pay policy to shareholders at next year's AGM.
Friday's meeting was not attended by investors, who had to
vote by proxy because of the coronavirus lockdown.
Earlier this month, Morrisons, Britain's No. 4
supermarket group, saw its remuneration policy opposed by more
than a third of votes cast at its annual meeting.
Tesco on Friday said first quarter underlying sales rose by
8.7%, lifted by the lockdown, but reiterated a flat profit
outlook due to the extra costs involved.
($1 = 0.8068 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by William James and
Alexander Smith)
