Sainsbury's braced for pay battle :: Namibia Internet Gateway cc ::

Articles: Sainsbury's braced for pay battle

Posted by admin on Monday, July 12, 2004 - 01:26 AM

Shareholders in supermarket group J Sainsbury are expected to protest over the pay package for top executives at the company's AGM on Monday.
A row is expected despite the firm's decision to abandon plans to award ex-chairman Sir Peter Davis a £2.4m bonus. The award had angered investors as Sir Peter, who quit on 1 July, had presided over falling profits and market share. However, Sainsbury's is expected to avoid defeat on the pay issue thanks to support from the Sainsbury family. The Sainsbury family, which owns about 35% of the supermarket group, is reported to be planning to vote in favour of the remuneration report. This should ensure the report is passed, despite reports that up to 30% of shareholders are planning to either abstain or vote against the report. Shareholder anger Investors were furious when they learned that Sir Peter stood to get 864,000 shares, despite the supermarket group's poor performance. Last week, Sainsbury made a U-turn and decided not to back the bonus, saying fresh information about the state of the company had emerged in an analysis by new chief executive Justin King. Sainsbury's said the original remuneration report would still go before shareholders at the AGM on Monday, but "the board will not implement these recommendations in relation to Sir Peter". However, shareholder group Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) said the company still needed to carry out a full review of pay policy. "Pirc welcomes the statement withdrawing support for the proposed share award," said Pirc's David Somerlink. "However, our recommendation to oppose the resolution on the company's remuneration report at the meeting on Monday remains unchanged."

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