‘Shareholder spring’ goes on as anger grows over salaries

William Hill is facing a revolt at its annual meeting today over the pay package awarded to chief executive Ralph Topping, which includes a £1.2m retention bonus and an 8.3 per cent salary rise.

Unilever hosts its annual meeting tomorrow where shareholders are expected to express concern over chief executive Paul Polman’s six per cent rise in salary, taking him close to £975,000.

WPP’s annual meeting is not being held until June 13 but anger is already brewing over the pay deal awarded to founder and chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell, who took home almost £13m in salary, bonuses and benefits in 2011, according to a newspaper report.

This week’s meetings follow a series of bruisings for a range of companies, including Barclays, Communisis, Pace, Aviva, Xstrata, Premier Foods and AstraZeneca, which have all had significant protest votes against management or pay. Business secretary Vince Cable, who is looking at proposals to give shareholders binding votes over executive pay, is holding a meeting with institutional investors this week.

Alan MacDougall, managing director of Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (Pirc), backed the proposals and said they should be brought into power.

He said: “At present only a small minority of companies run the risk of serious challenge from shareholders over remuneration, and investors’ powers are relatively limited. If we want a market-based system of oversight of executive remuneration then shareholders must have the right tools to do the job.”

The Association of British Insurers (ABI), whose members control about 15 per cent of the stock market, has issued an ‘amber top’ warning on William Hill’s remuneration report.

William Hill suffered a rebellion at its AGM last year over a 56 per cent increase in Mr Topping’s compensation package to £1.6m.

Aviva suffered a major shareholder revolt last Thursday after more than half of the votes at its annual meeting failed to back the insurer’s pay awards. The defeat came despite chief executive Andrew Moss waiving a near-five per cent pay rise which would have taken his annual salary over the £1m mark.