Mining company Anglo American reiterated it was “mindful” of shareholder concerns over executive pay, and pledged to consult them on a revised remuneration policy to ensure it was “both appropriate and motivational”.
Anglo became the latest FTSE 100 firm to face a protest over boardroom excess at its annual meeting, where 41.6% of investors voted against its remuneration report, including the £3.4m pay package of its chief executive, Mark Cutifani. .
Releasing the vote result, the company said: “Anglo American is mindful of the concerns expressed by a large number of shareholders in relation to executive remuneration in 2015, which have led to the remuneration report not receiving the same high level of support compared to previous years.”
Anglo said the dialogue it had with many major shareholders leading up to the AGM had helped clarify the issues, and it would continue to sound out shareholders in the next six months ahead of the 2017 meeting, when a revised remuneration policy will be put to the vote.
“Setting executive remuneration in a volatile industry such as mining can be challenging and the remuneration committee intends to again engage with shareholders in order to refine the policy to ensure that it is both appropriate and motivational,” it said.
Sir Philip Hampton, who chairs Anglo’s remuneration committee, will lead the group’s efforts to get feedback from institutional shareholders.
At the AGM in London, the Anglo chairman, John Parker, blamed a “very frenzied” wage debate going on in society at large, but said the group was listening to shareholders.
Last week, there were even bigger protest votes at oil giant BP and medical equipment group Smith & Nephew. Almost 60% of BP investors rejected a £14m pay package for its chief executive, Bob Dudley, in a year of record losses and thousands of job cuts. A few hours later, more than 50% of shareholders voted against pay deals at Smith & Nephew, which makes artificial hips and knees.
Anglo shares fell nearly 4% to 718.5p on Friday.
