Fat cat pay row rocks Astrazeneca boss

ASTRAZENECA’S chief executive faced a humiliating shareholder revolt over his bumper £9.4m pay.

Investors voiced their displeasure at Pascal Soriot ( pictured) at the pharma firm’s annual general meeting yesterday, just hours after he published disappointing profits.

More than a third of shareholders voted against the boss’s pay as it was reported that first-quarter profits slumped 36pc to £277m. Also, 22.5pc voted against the reelection of chairman Marcus Wallenberg. Shareholders had been urged to reject Astrazeneca’s remuneration report by Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), which said Soriot’s pay was ‘not warranted’. Astrazeneca’s pay report was also panned by Pensions And Investment Research Consultants (Pirc).

There was a similar revolt last year over the £14.3m handed to Soriot, when almost 40pc of shareholders voted against the pay report. ISS said there had been an attempt to address some investors’ concerns since 2017’s vote, but there were still issues.

An Astrazeneca spokesman said last night that the company was disappointed by the rebellion against the pay report and ‘will continue to engage with shareholders to address their concerns’.

ISS yesterday encouraged a rebellion ahead of Lloyds’ AGM on Thursday.