Europe: executive pay, remuneration reports and shareholder voting

The UK's Financial Times newspaper reports that "[the] shareholder voting season across Europe is just getting into full swing but already the militancy of investors is noticeable in the wake of the financial crisis". The report notes:

Xstrata suffered a stinging protest by shareholders over its pay policies on Tuesday as more than a third of votes cast on its remuneration report at its annual meeting failed to back it. BP experienced a similar protest vote against its remuneration plan last month and pay is expected to be a contentious issue at Shell’s annual meeting this month ... 

Europe in recent months has seen revolts in the Netherlands (Heineken, ASML, KPN) and Sweden (Volvo, Nordea) ...

In the UK, the proportion of votes against remuneration reports at the likes of BP, Pearson and Xstrata have reached record levels. Most remuneration reports are traditionally nodded through with more than 90 per cent of votes cast in favour. But Xstrata won just 64.4 per cent of shareholders’ support yesterday. Last month, BP got 62 per cent in favour of its report. Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, secured 67.5 per cent ... 

Smith & Nephew, which suffered the biggest FTSE 100 protest vote last year, still saw 37 per cent of investors fail to back the remuneration report at this year’s meeting last week. The next test for investors’ resolve will be at Rexam, the packaging group, tomorrow, with the big showdown set for May 19, at the Shell AGM".

Note: the hypertext links in the above quotation will take you to the AGM and voting information for each company.