Shareholders of large banks and energy companies lobby against high executive salaries

The shareholders of large companies question the high remuneration of their managers. While checking the voting list of the shareholders' meetings, the item that strikes the attention is the one that generates the most rejection.

An example of this phenomenon is the minutes of the last Iberdrola shareholders' meeting, held on June 17, where all 20 items received favorable votes, except for item 14, which regarded fixed and variable remuneration of its managers in 2021 and that obtained only 75,6% of the support.

This article, by the Spanish news agency infoLibre, analyses the perspectives and the key issues on the position of the shareholders of European companies, including Spain, with regard to remuneration policies. It highlights that the main discontent observed in the 2021 AGM season was in regard to remuneration practices. According to Morrow Sodali's report, the support for remuneration-related items by the Spanish investors declines each year: while in 2018 executive remuneration was approved by 87.7% of the shareholders, in 2021 this figure dropped to 85.2%.

In the future the investors will further increase their scrutiny towards executive remuneration, endorsing the bonuses that are variable and linked to substantial goal achievements, as well as their consistency with the financial performance of the company.

Read the full article here (in Spanish).