26th Apr 2018 06:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shareholders in British American Tobacco PLC rebelled against the company over its remuneration policy and concerns over an over-stretched non-executive director on Wednesday, annual general meeting results released on Thursday reveal.
Although all resolutions passed, the vote to approve BAT's directors' remuneration report passed with just 75.7% of votes cast - equivalent to 57.9% of all shares.
BAT intended to "listen to the views" of its shareholders "in order to understand the concerns of those who voted against this resolution."
"During 2018," BAT said in a statement, "the company intends to engage widely with shareholders as part of a full review of the company’s existing Remuneration Policy, in anticipation of presenting a new policy for shareholders to consider at the company's Annual General Meeting in April 2019."
The vote on the re-election of former Celesio chief financial officer Marion Helmes received even stiffer opposition. Just 59.3% of votes cast - equivalent to 45.3% of all shares - voted in favour amid concerns Helmes diverse roles were hampering her ability to provide the best to BAT.
In response, Helmes - who has been a non-executive at BAT since 2016 - announced she was to stand down from her position at vice-chair at Bilfinger SE in mid-May and as non-executive director at NXP Semiconductors NV at its annual general meeting. After these changes, Helmes will still hold five non-executive directorship positions including her roles at Heineken NV begun last Thursday and that at BAT.
"This will be within the acceptable scope for the number of mandates a director may hold as set out in the voting guidelines of leading corporate governance agencies," BAT explained. "We will carefully consider the feedback received from those shareholders that did not support Dr Helmes’ re-election and we will continue to listen to the views of our shareholders."
Helmes will still serve on the boards of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, Siemens Healthineers AG and Uniper alongside Heineken and BAT.
The Helmes vote followed pressure from investor groups - Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis - to step back from some of her roles amid fears she was overstretched.
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British American Tobacco