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M&S gets bloody nose over pay

Thu, 2010-07-15

Daily Telegraph

Marks & Spencer was given a bloody nose yesterday when shareholders representing 16.2pc of its share register failed to support the retailer's remuneration report at its annual meeting.

The vote followed warnings from shareholder groups including Pirc and the Association of British Insurers about the potential £15m pay package that M&S has given to Marc Bolland, who joined in the spring as M&S's chief executive-elect.

But despite the significant disapproval over the share plan, observers said that the negative vote could have been much larger. Earlier this month investors representing almost half of Tesco's share register failed to support its remuneration package.

M&S said that shareholders accounting for 8.7pc of its shares voted against its remuneration report while those accounting for a further 75.7m shares abstained from voting, taking the total figure to 16.2pc.