Ocado’s pay structures ‘are pretty outrageous’
a time when their own colleagues and customers are being hit hard by rising prices and stagnating pay.’
Karoline Herms, senior global ESG manager at LGIM, said the asset manager has not yet declared its voting intention this year but has voted against Ocado’s plan since its inception. She said: ‘It is a company that pops up with some pretty outrageous pay structures.’
Pension fund adviser ISS urged shareholders to vote against the plan. Another top adviser, Glass Lewis, said the plan could make executives eligible for ‘extremely large’ sums based solely on the share price and not on management performance.
Nearly 30 per cent of Ocado investors voted against the award scheme when it was implemented in 2020 and about 13 per cent voted against it last year. Ocado said: ‘Pay schemes – past and present – are approved by shareholders and only deliver above-market payouts for the delivery of above-market, outstanding results.’
Last week Flutter, the owner of Paddy Power and Betfair, saw a third of investors vote against executive pay.
The MoS also revealed The Restaurant Group boss Andy Hornby pocketed a £578,000 bonus despite receiving tens of millions of pounds of state aid during the pandemic. Londonbased bank Standard Chartered faces a backlash this week after it received a £47million fine from regulators over governance failings.