The majority of investors in the world’s biggest advertising agency, WPP, have backed a 17.6 million pound (HK$213.9 million) pay package for Chief Executive Martin Sorrell which had drawn fire from critics of lavish boardroom pay.
Some 81 per cent of shareholders voted for the last year executive pay packages, while 19 per cent were against. A figure for abstentions was not immediately available.
Sorrell’s total remuneration was almost double the 11.94 million pounds he received on an equivalent basis in 2011 when 60 per cent of WPP shareholders rejected the company’s remuneration plan.
This year has not seen a repeat of the “shareholder spring” of last year that saw pay packages and executives alike jettisoned at London shareholder meetings.
The structure of Sorrell’s pay had been adjusted to decrease the fixed element, but the long term incentive award, based on the group’s performance against its peers over five years, was 3.5 times higher than the previous year.
Shareholders also voted 83 per cent in favour of changes to how the long term incentive awards were calculated, to take into account return on equity and earnings per share. It means that from this year Sorrell can earn a maximum of 9.7 times his 1.15 million pound salary in long term awards.
Shares in WPP were up 0.64 per cent at the market close.