AstraZeneca has suffered another shareholder revolt over executive pay, with two-fifths opposing a £13m package for its chief executive.
Nearly 39% of investors voted against the pharmaceutical group’s 2016 remuneration report at its annual meeting in London, similar to the rebellion it faced three years ago. Support for the new pay policy was much stronger, with 96% of investors backing it.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, received a total pay package of £13.4m last year because a long-term incentive plan and other rewards paid out.
He was paid an annual salary of £1.2m and an annual bonus of £1.2m, down from £2m the previous year. But he pocketed a further £6.9m from a long-term incentive plan, plus a one-off payment of £3.6m in compensation for bonuses he lost when he left his previous employer.
Royal London Asset Management, which holds 1% of AstraZeneca shares, said it voted against the remuneration report and the chair of the remuneration committee, but backed the new pay policy.
After consulting its biggest shareholders, AstraZeneca said it had made changes to its long-term bonus plans to simplify them and make them fairer. It added that its remuneration committee would “continue the dialogue with shareholders, as appropriate, regarding any concerns following its AGM”.
Two advisory groups, PIRC and Institutional Shareholder Services, had urged shareholders to vote against the remuneration report and policy. PIRC described the £6.9m long-term incentive plan payment as “excessive”.
Britain’s second-biggest drugmaker has faced several protest votes over executive pay in recent years. In the shareholder spring of 2012, the chief executive at the time, David Brennan, was ousted after a row over his £9m package and the firm’s underperformance. In 2014, 40% of shareholders failed to back its remuneration report.
The housebuilding firm Persimmon suffered a near 10% protest vote over executive pay on Thursday, while Crest Nicholson has pushed ahead with plans to pay out controversial bonuses, even though more than 58% of shareholders rejected its remuneration report last month in a non-binding vote.
