Quarter Of Ocado Shareholders Rebel Against Remuneration Report

LONDON (Alliance News) - Ocado Group PLC on Wednesday said close to a quarter of votes at its annual general meeting were against its remuneration policy and report.

Although all resolutions were passed, the online grocer said 25% of votes at its AGM were in opposition to the directors' remuneration report and 24% were in opposition to the directors' remuneration policy.

The Ocado 'Value Creation Plan' also received objections totalling 24% of votes, and 19% of votes were cast against its annual incentive plan.

Responding to the result, Ocado said it recognised the dissenting votes and had "carried out an extensive shareholder consultation exercise with its largest shareholders and the representative bodies" in preparation for its 2019 remuneration proposals.

Ocado said most of its larger shareholders supported its original proposals and understood the reasons behind changes. Ocado also said it has made changes to the operation of its remuneration proposals in response to shareholder consultation.

"The board believes that as a result of the consultation exercise it understands the reasons why some shareholders were not supportive of the remuneration proposals. We will continue to engage with shareholders on remuneration and governance matters and are committed to consulting on the formation of the future remuneration policies," said Andrew Harrison, chair of Ocado's remuneration committee.

In addition, 23% of votes were against the approval of an amendment to the chair's share matching award.

Harrison responded to this, saying: "The remuneration committee believes that since the matching shares remain subject to an ongoing restriction that prevents sale of these shares, these arrangements alone provide sufficient alignment of interests between the company, its shareholders and the chairman. Although this change is a one-off matter, the remuneration committee will in any event, seek feedback from the shareholders who did not support this proposal and report on this in due course."

Shares in Ocado closed up 1.1% at 1,378.00 pence on Wednesday.