TP Icap told to go back to the drawing board by investors over executive pay plans
TP Icap's investors have rebuffed an executive pay plan which could have lead to senior executives taking home tens of millions.
The newly-merged broker's reward plans would have paid up to £85m in shares over a three-year period, although the scheme would have only started paying out once almost £400m in shareholder value had been made.
Although some investors were less than pleased with the scheme, one source familiar with the plan told Sky News, which first reported the story: "This was always presented as a consultation exercise, and the company has listened carefully to what investors have had to say. The opposition to it was far from unanimous."
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A TP Icap spokesperson said: "The goal of the board is to ensure the management team delivers maximum value to shareholders. We are at an early stage in consulting with our shareholders for their feedback, ahead of putting forward our new incentive plan at the AGM in May."
TP Icap was created at the end of last year, following Tullett Prebon's £1.3bn takeover of Icap's voice broking business.
Executive pay is a hot but sensitive topic in the City at the moment. The government recently closed a consultation on corporate governance, which also sought input on executive pay, and is currently considering the feedback.
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Among the submissions to the consultation, the Investment Association suggested imposing an automatically binding vote for companies whose pay deals were voted against by more than a quarter of shareholders the year before, while Fidelity International called for binding votes on boardroom pay policy to be increased from once every three years to once every year.
Several companies faced shareholder rebellions over senior pay last year. An unprecedented 59.29 per cent of BP's shareholders voted against chief exec Bob Dudley’s $19.6m (£13.8m) remuneration package, while shareholder interest groups urged investors to give WPP's boss Martin Sorrell a bloody nose over his £70.4m pay, although just 33.45 per cent voted against it in the end.