Vodafone's annual general meeting (a.g.m.) has backed chief executive Mr Chris Gent's controversial new pay deal after a year in which he reported the biggest company loss in Britain and as the stock trades at half its 12-month high.
The company, which is Europe's biggest wireless phone network operator, said 84.4 per cent of voters backed a package which would pay Mr Gent between the top 25 per cent and top 10 per cent of European chief executives, who make between £3.4 million sterling (€5.4 million) and £9.3 million per year.
Some 9.5 per cent of votes were against the new deal, while the rest abstained, Vodafone said. The company has more than 400,000 Irish shareholders after it bought Eircom's subsidiary Eircell.
In the year ended in March, Mr Gent made £2.4 million plus £1.6 million worth of share options. Vodafone said 80 per cent of the new package would be performance-related.
One of the elements of the new scheme will put him in line for 2.2 million Vodafone shares if the company meets certain shareholder return targets.
He will also be entitled to buy up to a total of 9.3 million shares at 97 pence if a separate set of earnings growth targets is met over three years.
Some pension fund managers and Britain's Pensions Investment Research Consultants advised that Vodafone should do the same, as doubts creep in about its long-term growth prospects.
Chairman Mr Ian MacLaurin asked his shareholders to consider Mr Gent's record. He pointed out that in the five years since he took over, Vodafone shares had outperformed the FTSE 100 blue-chip index by 90 per cent.
"Short-term perspectives in volatile and uncertain market conditions are unfair to those who invest their lives and careers in the business and hold long-term shareholder interests at heart," he said.
- (Reuters)
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