Ocado suffers backlash in row over fat cat pay

OCADO boss Tim Steiner was given a bloody nose in a shareholder revolt over pay.

The tech group saw 19pc of investors vote against a share award plan that could see the co-founder pocket £15m. The rebellion highlights unease among some shareholders about Ocado’s performance in recent years.

Ahead of the vote, advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) said its concerns were ‘exacerbated by no dividend and a general decline in share price’.

Ocado enjoyed a pandemicboom but has lost almost 90pc of its value since shares peaked in 2020.

There are signs of a turnaround at its Ocado Retail 50-50 joint venture with Marks & Spencer which allows Ocado customers to buy M&S groceries online.

But investors are still unhappy and some even want to see the business move its London listing to New York.

Under the new plan, Steiner, 54, could be paid a share award worth £14.8m from 2027 if he improves its stock market performance and boosts cash flow.

It is not the first fat cat pay rebellion seen this spring. Astrazeneca earlier this month was left reeling after more than a third of investors voted against a bumper deal for chief executive Pascal Soriot.

They were disgruntled over his new £18.7m pay packet, which would take his total earnings to £153m since he started the top job at the pharmaceutical giant in 2012.

And the owner of London’s stock market saw 11pc of investors vote against plans to more than double its boss’s pay.

The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) wants to raise chief executive David Schwimmer’s pay from £6.25m to £13m.