Revolt at Micro Focus over £268m bonuses

SOFTWARE giant Micro Focus faces a shareholder rebellion over a move to give bosses an extra year to hit targets which could allow them to share a £268 million bonus bonanza.

The FTSE 100 company’s remuneration committee is accused by Glass Lewis of having ‘not fulfilled’ its duties. The influential shareholder advisory body has urged investors to vote against the re-election of committee chairwoman Amanda Brown and the three other members – Darren Roos, Silke Scheiber and Karen Slatford – at the annual meeting on March 29. It has also recommended investors vote against the remuneration report.

Micro Focus granted the time extension after the botched integration of its £6.5 billion takeover of assets from Hewlett Packard Enterprise made the share price slide.

For the awards to pay out in full, the share price – now £18.45 – must hit £34 by September 2020. No payouts will be triggered unless it reaches £25. In January, The MoS learned that the time extension had angered investors. Aviva Investors said it would challenge the firm ahead of the annual meeting.

Glass Lewis said it was ‘deeply troubled’ by the ‘grossly excessive’ bonus scheme which was ‘sharply divergent from good practice’.

More than 30 senior bosses stand to gain. The top four executives could share up to £110 million. Executive chairman Kevin Loosemore may pocket £37.4 million. Glass Lewis added: ‘We question the committee’s use of discretion in amending the performance period to begin and end one year later, thereby allowing the executives an additional year to meet the targets.’

Micro Focus said the changes were ‘fully consistent’ with the remuneration policy which was supported by Glass Lewis and approved by shareholders in September 2017.

It said the time change ‘simply aligns the performance period to the 2020 business plan’.