Last week saw the last three AGMs of 31 December year-end FTSE100 companies take place, namely for Coca-Cola HBC, RBS and WPP (and all received at least 80% shareholder approval for both parts of the DRR). There was one other AGM (Tesco, which has a February year-end), and two DRRs were released (by SABMiller and United Utilities – both 31 March year-ends). It’s fair to say that, not for the first time, the antics in Brazil have had a fair bit more bite than the goings on in the world of FTSE100 executive remuneration.
The four FTSE100 companies that held their AGMs last week received the following votes in favour of their DRRs:
- Coca-Cola HBC – 85.9% for the implementation report and 81.5% for the policy report
- Royal Bank of Scotland – 99.8% for the implementation report and 99.7% for the policy report
- Tesco – 98.6% for the implementation report and 97.5% for the policy report
- WPP – 81.8% for the implementation report and 81.9% for the policy report
As all December year-end AGMs have now been held, we reach a point in the season where it is interesting to look at the voting results compared to those entities’ results last year.
For those FTSE100 companies with year-ends on or before 31 December, the average vote for the policy report is 92.2%, and the average vote for the implementation report is identical – 92.2%. These are both pretty impressive numbers. However, both averages are slightly lower than the average vote in favour of those entities’ reports last year of 92.5% (albeit that was a single vote on the DRR itself).
Next week should be a quiet week without any FTSE100 AGMs being held, nd only two 31 March year-end companies that are yet to publish their DRRs (being Tate & Lyle and Vedanta Resources). Once the 31 March year-end AGMs have been completed, we will re-run the average voting numbers in order to see if the companies that were the first to go under the new regime fared any better than those who were given a little more time to get to grips with the regulations and, perhaps crucially, take a look at what early followers’ published DRRs were like.
As always, our single source document will keep voting results up to date, along with links to published FTSE100 DRRs.