Fewer Investors Vote Against Sorrell's Pay Deal

More than a fifth (21.3%) of WPP investors voted against or abstained on the issue of CEO Sir Martin Sorrell's £48m pay package, at yesterday's AGM. However, this was an improvement on the 34% of investors who rejected the pay deal last year, and almost 60% who were against it in 2012.

Sorrell (pictured), who is currently the FTSE 100's highest paid chief exec, set up the business in 1985. It now comprises companies in advertising, media, PR, branding, communications, digital, and marketing services, as well as the Kantar Data Investment Management arm, which includes TNS, Millward Brown, the Futures Company and many other specialist businesses.

Last month, it was announced that Sorrell's pay for 2017 will fall by around £22m, with further drops scheduled for 2018 and 2021. The firm, whose high-paying, performance-related 'Leap' scheme was scrapped this year, noted that it understood share owners' increasing discomfort with levels of 'reward opportunities'. In summer 2016, around a third of WPP shareholders voted against Sorrell's £70m pay package. In March, it was announced that Sorrell had secured around £50m in this year's pay award under the Leap scheme. WPP then stated in its annual report that the maximum Sorrell will receive this year will be £48.1m; from next year, his total remuneration will be nearer to £20m a year; and from 2021, WPP will limit Sorrell's pay package to just over £13m. During yesterday's AGM, around 90% of shareholders voted in favour of this new, less generous remuneration policy.

Also at yesterday's AGM, shareholders Standard Life and Royal London demanded more progress towards WPP identifying a successor for 72-year-old Sorrell. Ashley Hamilton Claxton of Royal London said that planning for succession is the biggest risk facing the company, and claimed there is still work to be done to assure shareholders of an 'orderly and stable transition' when Sorrell steps down.

Web site: www.wpp.com .