Shell's executive pay plan voted down in shareholder rebellion

[kpete]

Source: Financial Times

Shell's executive pay plan voted down in shareholder rebellion

By Kate Burgess in London and Michael Steen in Amsterdam

Published: May 20 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 20 2009 03:00

A global investor backlash over executive pay escalated yesterday when shareholders turned on Royal Dutch Shell, the multinational oil group, and voted against its executive pay plan.

In one of the biggest investor rebellions over directors' pay, about 59 per cent of Shell shareholders voted down the company's remuneration report.

They objected to the discretionary award to executive directors of bonuses for 2006-08 performance, which were made even though the company failed to meet targets.

The scale of the 'No' vote was strong evidence of the growing anger over remuneration and bonuses among shareholders, who have been criticised by regulators and politiciansin the wake of the financial crisis for failing to hold boards to account.

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e5fa018-44d7-11de-82d6-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

[napi21]

1. It's about damn time! The shareholders are the only ones who can

legally force this issue onto the greedy execs, and the more often we see shareholders respond NO!!!! the more pressure there will be on the other companies who were and are doing the same thing!

[No Elephants]

2. The gubbamint can force it on those who took bailout money, too. It just won't.

[Aragorn]

5. unless and until

the government BECOMES a/the shareholder(s). I predict that will change things overnight. And it's the proper legal way.

Lots of shareholders don't seem to care what the company does or how it does it as long as they get nice premiums.

[able1]

3. Well glory be. It's almost greed free. Good on them. EOM

[Winterblues]

8. I would say the opposite

Shareholders are the boss and the boss wants the money. They don't want it to go to executives that don't perform to the extreme. This is pretty astounding to me since the oil companies have produced record profits for six consecutive years now..Apparently these shareholders want some of that money..

[Salviati]

4. While I feel a bit uneasy about a plan to legally limit executive pay

(mainly because I think it would be too expensive politically for what it's worth) I am completely in favor of requiring shareholder approval for executive pay. I think that there would be a lot of howling about that too, but ultimately less effective opposition.

[w4rma]

6. The world would be a better place with limited executive pay. (nt)

[Demeter]

7. Then Eliminate the Executives

Surely all that overhead isn't required for daily or even year to year operations.