Small investors act on fat-cat pay: one in 10 private shareholders has sold shares in protest.

AuthorHowarth, Anita
PositionShareholder Activism - Brief Article

The shareholder revolt over executive pay has spread beyond the investment institutions to include the UK's 7.5 million small investors.

A survey by stockbroker Brewin Dolphin found that more than half of the small investors it questioned would consider selling their shares in a company in protest if a senior director received a pay rise that they thought was undeserved. Just over 10 per cent said they had already sold shares for that reason.

Opposition to big boardroom pay rises reached new levels when angry shareholders blocked proposals to award Jean-Pierre Garnier, chief executive of GlaxoSmithKline, a package worth 22 million [pounds sterling] should the firm dismiss him for poor performance. In that case, the backlash from institutional investors hit the headlines, but the Brewin Dolphin research suggests that many private shareholders are just as angry at the executive reward packages on offer in some UK companies. Its survey of 1,400 private investors also revealed an upsurge of interest in participating at annual general...

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