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M&S set for stromy AGM as investors urged to vote down executive pay report

Wed, 2010-07-07

Daily Telegraph

Marks & Spencer is set for a stormy annual shareholder meeting next week after Pirc, the corporate governance advisory body, urged shareholders to oppose the retailer's remuneration report.

Pirc, which advises institutional shareholders with combined assets of over £1.5 trillion, said that it considers M&S's executive pay to be "highly excessive".

M&S will hold its annual shareholder meeting next Wednesday at London's Royal Festival Hall.

Pirc has advised shareholders to vote against the retailer's pay report. The body highlighted the potential of the M&S remuneration committee to grant a variable remuneration of 650pc of base salary to certain executives. It also highlighted the £15m pay package awarded to Marc Bolland, M&S's new chief executive who was poached from supermarket Wm Morrison.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) last week issued a so-called "amber top" warning regarding M&S's remuneration report. Other shareholder bodies and investment groups, including Manifest, have criticised M&S's pay policies.