On the go: Shareholder activism is on the rise. Across Britain’s major companies in the FTSE 350, 148 annual meeting resolutions attracted ‘significant’ dissent levels across 82 different companies in 2018, recent research has shown. Executive pay and directors’ election were the top areas of concern.
These figures were a sharp 25 per cent rise over 2017, where 117 AGM resolutions attracted significant dissent at 73 different companies, according to a Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association report published on January 29.
The report examined AGM results for companies in the FTSE 350 index in 2018.
In both the FTSE 250 and FTSE 100, around one quarter of companies experienced significant dissent on at least one resolution at their AGM. Dissent levels of more than 20 per cent were classified as ‘significant’ in line with guidance from the GC100 and Investor Group.
While the figures for the FTSE 250 remain broadly unchanged from 2015-17, the number of resolutions attracting significant dissent on FTSE 100 remuneration-related votes in 2018 versus 2017 has nearly tripled.
Despite continued investor dissent over remuneration policies and reports at AGMs, the most recent figures for median FTSE 100 chief executive pay awards stood at £3.9m per year between 2016 and 2017, up from £3.5m in the previous year.
