Fat cat pay fury rocks Paddy Power

THe owner of Paddy Power and Betfair was rocked by a shareholder revolt as a string of companies faced fat cat pay fury.

At gambling giant Flutter a third of investors who voted at the annual meeting opposed executive pay after chief executive Peter Jackson was handed a 26pc rise in his basic pay to £1.17m.

This was more than double the scale of last year’s rebellion when 15pc voted against the remuneration report.

Flutter said Jackson’s salary needed to be comparable with US rivals since the business expanded there. It acknowledged the rises were ‘materially higher’ than the average across the rest of its UK workforce.

Advisory service ISS fumed: ‘The magnitude of the increase is not considered justified’. meanwhile, almost a fifth of shareholders who voted rebelled against pay at ITV where chief executive Dame Carolyn mcCall took home £3.5m last year including a £943,000 salary.

Building materials group CrH saw 14pc vote against its pay report while 15pc opposed remuneration at Serco.