Anglo American bosses are poised for a showdown with angry investors as the group becomes the latest FTSE 100 company to incite shareholder wrath over executive pay.
The mining giant is a braced for a rebellion at its annual meeting on Thursday afternoon, with shareholders expected to oppose the £3.4m pay package for the chief executive, Mark Cutifani.
The shareholder group ShareSoc has urged investors to vote against Cutifani’s pay for 2015, a year in which Anglo suspended dividend payments and was the worst FTSE 100 performer. Its shares plunged 72% to 328p from 1,152p.
Anglo American said Cutifani’s bonus had been reduced by 40% and his salary had been frozen, but ShareSoc said he could earn £6.3m for achieving targets and £8.8m if he exceeds them.
It follows last week’s BP meeting, when almost 60% of the group’s shareholders voted against the £14m pay package handed to the chief executive, Bob Dudley.
Investors overwhelmingly rejected Dudley’s huge pay deal, awarded despite record losses, thousands of jobs cuts and a pay freeze for employees.
In echoes of the “shareholder spring” of 2012, when several major companies faced rebellions over pay, Smith & Nephew investors also rebelled over pay, with more than 50% voting against pay deals at the medical equipment group. Investors were angered by a decision to allow a long-term incentive plan to pay out £2.1m to 60 senior executives even though the performance criteria had not been reached.
The vote on Anglo’s pay report will be non-binding, just as it was at BP.
Anglo has been badly hit by a slump in commodities. In December it announced plans to cut 85,000 jobs and dispose of more than half its mines in response to the plunging price of iron ore and other metals.
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