Some 30% of investors at Smith & Nephew, the medical devices company, failed to endorse its remuneration report
Some 30% of investors at Smith & Nephew, the FTSE-100 medical devices company, failed to endorse its remuneration report.
The advisory body Pirc had recommended voting against the pay plans for a number of reasons, including a €1.4m "golden hello" for chief executive Olivier Bohuon.
"It is unclear how a golden hello benefits shareholders," Pirc had said in a recommendation to clients before the annual meeting. Pirc also noted that the financial performance of the company had fallen short of targets but that cash bonuses had reached nearly 100% of salary.
Pirc also had concerns about the way the long term performance plans operated and the potential payouts that they could receive if the company is taken over.
Bohuon, who became chief executive in April 2011, received €1.6m in "benefits" which included the €1.4m and payments related to his relocation from Pierre Fabre, based in the south of France.
He replaced David Illingworth, who had been chief executive for four years and had decided to return to the US and who departed amid talk of a potential takeover of the company.
Some 8% of shareholders voted against the remuneration report but the level of disapproval rose to 30% when deliberate abstentions are included. Few questions about pay were asked from the floor of the annual meeting and there was no immediate explanation for the high level of deliberate abstentions.
Baroness Virginia Bottomley, the former MP turned head hunter, has been appointed as a non-executive director.