RE: Bill higgs8 May 2021 17:14
Genel are mentioned in an article in the FT about corporate pay packages and share holders voting against over generous awards.
FT: may 6th.
"Rio Tinto has suffered a major revolt by shareholders over the exit package handed to former chief executive Jean-Sébastien Jacques, one of several investor rebellions over pay on a bruising day for UK-listed companies.
More than 60 per cent of the votes cast at Rio’s annual meetings in London and Sydney were against its remuneration report, making it the most significant rebellion this year against a UK-listed company on pay.
Jacques and two of his senior lieutenants resigned in September following an outcry over the blasts at the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge site in Western Australia to make way for a mine expansion.
Although Jacques was stripped of bonuses worth an estimated £2.7m, his total pay last year climbed 20 per cent to £7.2m. In addition he was allowed to keep shares awarded under a long-term incentive programme worth more than £27m.
The resolutions put before shareholders, however, are advisory and not binding, although in Australia if a remuneration report draws more than 25 per cent opposition for two years, the board in question has to put itself up for re-election.
The revolt is a blow for Rio’s outgoing chair Simon Thompson and its new chief executive, who have been trying to repair relations with shareholders, damaged by the events at Juukan Gorge almost a year ago.
Although Rio’s was the largest, it was just one of several UK companies to suffer shareholder rebellions.
At drugmaker Indivior, more than 38 per cent of shareholders voted against the company’s pay report, after it maintained bonuses for its former chief executive, despite being jailed for his role in the US opioid crisis. A fifth of shareholders additionally voted against the re-election of Daniel Phelan, chair of the remuneration committee.
Almost a quarter of investors in BAE Systems, Britain’s largest defence contractor, voted against pay at the company over proposals to hand its chief executive an extra £2m to stay, after an attempt from a rival to poach him. About a fifth of shareholders at Vitec also failed to support the small-cap company’s pay report over concerns about payouts.
Shareholders in Genel Energy, the London-listed but Kurdistan-focused oil producer, also staged a protest. More than 42 per cent of votes were cast against the company’s pay policy and there were also sizeable protests against its remuneration report for 2020, plus 2021 share and bonus plans.
Martin Gudgeon, chair of the Genel’s remuneration committee quit ahead of the vote, while its chief financial officer Esa Ikaheimonen also resigned from the board of directors but will retain his CFO role.
The rebellions are the biggest sign yet shareholders are living up to their warnings that they would punish companies that failed to keep pay in check, particularly in light of the pandemic."
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