Do not succumb to the ‘Fat Cat Friday’ outrage January 3, 2019 As if Greggs’ vegan sausage rolls hadn’t prompted enough misplaced shock and outrage for the start of a new year, you can expect more of the same this morning when campaigners declare it to be “Fat Cat Friday”. The High Pay Centre, which opposes current levels of executive remuneration, calculates that by this afternoon a [...]
BT to shake up executive pay amid shareholder revolt over boss’s bonus December 18, 2018 BT today said it will rethink its executive pay strategy after shareholders fought back at the outgoing chief executive’s £2.3m pay packet. The embattled telecoms group said it was “disappointed” at the results of a vote on its annual remuneration report, which saw 34 per cent of shareholders vote against the proposed pay. Much of [...]
Nissan boss tells Renault to heed its warnings over Ghosn misconduct charges December 17, 2018 Nissan’s chief executive today called on Renault board members to listen to its reasons for sacking former chairman Carlos Ghosn. Renault said last week it would keep Carlos Ghosn, who is in detention in Tokyo on charges of financial misconduct, as its chairman and chief executive. But Nissan boss Hiroto Saikawa said the Renault board [...]
Voting with your wallet is the ultimate consumer power December 4, 2018 The Labour party leadership believes that income inequality is far too high. As socialists, they think of income as centrally distributed, like slices of cake at a birthday party. Top company executives have seen sharp increases in pay in recent decades, so in Labour’s view, that means less sponge and icing for workers. The cutter [...]
Heed Hammond’s warning: We must not be prisoners of change December 3, 2018 Britain has become a single issue nation. So all-consuming have the ins and outs of Brexit become that the national debate seems incapable of concentrating on anything else. Which was why it was so surprising when Philip Hammond spoke to a small business audience last week and didn’t drop the B-word once. In so doing, [...]
Executive pay is undermining the public’s faith in capitalism November 26, 2018 Question: what connects the leader of a York-based housebuilder with a car executive in Tokyo? Answer: both have recently been embroiled in scandals over top pay. Carlos Ghosn, chairman of Nissan, is under criminal investigation in Japan for under-reporting his remuneration to the Tokyo Stock Exchange and misusing company assets. Nissan removed him from post [...]
Bet365’s billionaire boss Denise Coates pockets massive £265m payout November 21, 2018 The chief executive of online bookie Bet365 Denise Coates took home £265m last year after giving herself a £21m pay rise. The billionaire businesswoman pocketed a salary of £220m, an increase from £199m last year and roughly a third of Bet365’s total profits for the year to the end of March, according to the company’s accounts. Coates, [...]
Profit or purpose? Business must find a better balance November 15, 2018 Last week, I attended a meeting of entrepreneurs backing Small Business Saturday (coming up on 1 December) to look at a survey of what motivates these firms. I expected a tirade against red tape and tax. What we got was the news that, of over 1,000 SMEs polled, only 60 per cent were primarily driven [...]
Mind your own business and stay out of Persimmon’s bonus scheme November 8, 2018 The news that Jeff Fairburn has been asked to leave Persimmon in the wake of the furore over his £75m bonus should not come as a surprise. There is a febrile atmosphere of media scrutiny when it comes to such matters, and shareholders had already branded the long-term incentive scheme pay-out as “grossly excessive”. Unfortunately, [...]
City heavyweights including L&G’s Nigel Wilson, Sainsbury’s David Tyler and BNY Mellon’s Helena Morrissey join working group to overhaul executive pay September 8, 2015 A new panel of city executives is exploring whether to scrap long-term share awards as part of a radial overhaul of city boardroom culture. The Executive Remuneration Working Group was set up by the Investment Association, which represents the UK's £5.5 trillion asset-management industry, to examine how to simplify executive pay. Daniel Godfrey, chief executive [...]