WPP faces a rebellion by shareholders

SHAREHOLDERS have dealt a bloody nose to WPP over the advertising giant’s £48m pay package for chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell.

More than 21% of investors opposed or abstained when asked to vote on the remuneration report at the firm’s annual general meeting (AGM) yesterday.

While the vote was not binding, the level of discontent will be embarrassing for the FTSE 100 firm, which cut Sir Martin’s total pay to £48.1m for last year, from £70.4m for 2015.

However, the level of protest over WPP’s new remuneration policy, which will hand executives lower long-term incentive awards, was at a more modest 10%.

The results ensured WPP faced a shareholder backlash for the second year in a row after more than a third of investors refused to back Sir Martin’s pay deal at the 2016 AGM.

It comes as the company also gave a trading update on Wednesday for the first four months of this year, with reported revenues rising 16% to £4.8bn thanks to a boost from the Brexit-hit pound.

Stripping out acquisitions and the impact of sterling’s slump, like-for-like revenue stepped up by 0.7% in contrast to last year and ahead of the 0.2% growth seen in the first quarter.

Chairman Roberto Quarta said: “The pattern of revenue and net sales growth in the first four months of 2017 is generally the same as the first quarter of the year, with the one month of April showing stronger revenue growth, particularly in the United Kingdom and Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe.”

The drop in Sir Martin’s 2016 pay packet reflected the falling value of his long-term share incentive plan, known as LEAP, which eased back from £62.8m to just over £41m. The WPP founder’s short-term bonuses also fell from £4.3m to around £3m.