Future to introduce CEO bonus scheme despite shareholder revolt

Zillah Byng-Thorne will be entitled to 14.3% of the new share scheme, up to an annual maximum of £13.6m. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Future, the UK’s biggest magazine publisher, home to titles from Country Life and Total Guitar, is to introduce a controversial bonus scheme that could award its chief executive £40m, after a bruising shareholder vote in which almost 40% of investors failed to approve the plan.

The board of Future, which in November struck a £594m deal to buy the comparison site GoCompare, weathered the shareholder revolt at its annual general meeting on Wednesday after a number of influential advisory services recommended investors voted to reject the new scheme.

Almost 40% of shareholders voted against or withheld their vote, while the same proportion failed to back Future’s remuneration report for last year, which awarded the chief executive, Zillah Byng-Thorne, a £3.7m overall package and a 21% pay rise to £575,000.

The new scheme proposes that all 2,300 employees will share in an annual pot of shares capped at £95m for three years as long as Future’s share price rises at least 10% a year from September 2020 to September 2025. The previous scheme only benefited the 50 most senior directors.

Byng-Thorne, who over the last six years has transformed Future from a business facing collapse to one with a market value of £1.8bn, is entitled to 14.3% of the pot up to an annual maximum of £13.6m.

Almost 40% of Future shareholders also failed to back a new “value creation” plan, which is built on building synergies between its publishing business and GoCompare. Many of its titles, such as T3, make significant income when readers click-through to buy an item from a retailer partner after reading a review.

The company’s board acknowledged the investor revolt but said the new share bonus policy and value creation plan recognised “the key role that all Future’s colleagues play in delivering our ambitious strategy”.

“The value creation plan is directly aligned to shareholder interests by incentivising and rewarding exceptional performance and the sustained delivery of further significant increases in shareholder value,” the company said.