Pay revolts hit Balfour Beatty, Pru and Lloyds

PAY revolts rocked Balfour Beatty, Prudential and Lloyds Banking Group yesterday in the latest wave of shareholder unrest.

Building and infrastructure giant Balfour saw 32pc of investors refuse to back its pay arrangements in the biggest revolt of the day.

Prudential boss Tidjane Thiam saw 13pc of shareholders refuse to back his £37.8m package, which was up from £4.7m the year before. One shareholder called the level of increase ‘obscene’ at the meeting.

Lloyds directors faced an 11pc protest at their annual ballot, and were heavily criticised for the company’s tax affairs.

At the meeting it was slammed for funnelling money through a network of subsidiaries based in tax havens around the world.

Speaking at the meeting, Edinburgh pensioner Anne Edmonds said: ‘I can’t think of any other purpose for putting money in the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar etc except to evade tax. That money should be kept in the UK to help the economy.’

Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio is already clamping down on the system, closing 60 subsidiaries in tax havens last year.

He plans to shut down 27 more of its companies set up in four tax havens, including the Caymen Islands, in the coming years.

Lloyds paid a total of around £1.2bn in tax, including national insurance, in both 2011 and 2012.

A group spokesman said: ‘We are fully compliant with tax laws.’

Prudential shares, up 88pc in the last year, rose 2p to 1183p, while Lloyds shares rose 1.54p to 60.91p. Balfour fell 1.4p to 226.4p.