Little progress on CEO salaries despite noise from shareholders
Anglo American was one of last year’s high-profile targets for shareholders who’d had enough of inappropriately generous remuneration being handed out to executives. At the 2016 AGM, 41.6% of shareholders voted against the group’s remuneration report, which provided for a £3.4m pay package to CEO Mark Cutifani, after a year of dismal profit performance. At the AGM chairman John Parker blamed the large “no” vote, which did not affect Cutifani’s pay, on the “very frenzied” wage debate going on in society — but he added that the group was listening to shareholders. Consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser irritated its shareholders when it paid CEO Rakesh Kapoor £23m, a sum that was quickly dwarfed by the £63m awarded to advertising company WPP’s CEO, Martin Sorrell. In SA the R50m one-off discretionary cash bonus that was paid out to Shoprite’s Whitey Basson seemed modest compared with the almost R1bn windfall enjoyed by SABMiller’s last CEO, Alan Clark. After years of painstaking cha...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.