WPP gets bloody nose on Sorrell pay package

Advertising giant WPP suffered a shareholder revolt yesterday against its £48 million pay package last year for chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell.

About 21 per cent of investors refused to back the remuneration report at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM). It was an embarrassment for the FTSE 100 listed WPP’S board, which had cut Sorrell’s total pay last year from £70.4m in 2015.

The vote is not binding, and the level of protest over the group’s new remuneration policy, which will hand executives lower long term incentive awards, was at a more modest 10 per cent.

It was the second consecutive AGM investor protest for WPP after more than a third of investors refused to back Sorrell’s pay deal 12 months ago.

It came as the company also gave a trading update yesterday for the first four months of this year, with reported revenues rising 16 per cent to £4.8 billion thanks to a boost from sterling’s weakness.