Shareholders revolt over Ashtead chief’s pay

EQUIPMENT hire group Ashtead has suffered another embarrassing shareholder backlash over boardroom pay.

Nearly a third of investors voted against US chief executive Brendan Horgan’s £6.6million package at the annual meeting on Tuesday. The Mail on Sunday warned that shareholders were likely to rebel over the award, after more than a third voted against the pay report and remuneration policy in September last year. The new revolt extended to the chair of Ashtead’s executive pay committee, Lucinda Riches. More than a quarter of investors opposed her re-election.

In a highly unusual move, she had written to shareholders to head off another rebellion, saying Ashtead was ‘extremely disappointed’ by voting advice from Institutional Shareholder Services.

Investors had been ‘consulted extensively’ on the pay proposals, she added.

The vote keeps Ashtead on the Investment Association’s blacklist of firms hit by a revolt of more than 20 per cent.