6th Jun 2014 06:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC was hit by investor disquiet over its turnaround plan at the company's annual general meeting Thursday, with significant protest votes against the re-election of Chief Executive Dalton Philips and the company's remuneration policy for management bonuses.
While all the AGM resolutions were passed, more than 15.4% of shareholders voted against re-electing Philips as CEO, Morrisons said, and over 26.5% voted against approving the company's remuneration policy, which details the amounts of and conditions for management bonuses.
Also at the AGM Thursday, Chairman Ian Gibson said he will step down from the role at next year's AGM.
The struggling supermarket chain continues to underperform with the business seeing bigger losses and falling sales.
Back in March, a Morrisons spokesman told Alliance News that Philips declined to be considered for his annual bonus of GBP374,000 in the wake of disappointing trading.
Philips would have been eligible for a GBP374,000 bonus, half in cash immediately and half paid in shares subject to a three-year deferral, the spokesman said. However, Philips declined to be considered for the bonus because of the company's poor trading performance, the spokesman said.
In the financial year ended January 29, 2013, Philips was paid a base salary of GBP850,000 but none of the company's directors got short-term bonuses because the performance targets that would have triggered a payout were missed, according to the company's annual report. Philips was awarded GBP2.3 million worth of shares under the company's long-term incentive plan for that year.
The UK's fourth largest supermarket retailer reported dismal earnings results on March 13, when it said it swung to a pretax loss of GBP176 million in the twelve months to February 2, compared with a pretax profit of GBP879 million the prior year, as revenues declined 2% and as it booked a total of GBP903 million in exceptional costs.
The first quarter of its new financial year was no better, as the supermarket warned that declining sales will continue for some time, while it continues to pump money into its new online business and convenience stores, and in the meantime loses out of market share to better performing rivals and the heavy discounters.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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