Without any FTSE100 companies’ DRRs being published or AGMs being held last week, interest in UK executive compensation activity came from a couple of other notable events.

  • The World Cup, Wimbledon, the Tour de France, the British Grand Prix – and the approval of Mike Ashley’s incentive plan! – were all important sporting events taking place over the last week.  As the world’s elite cyclists geared up to tackle the hills of Yorkshire, Sports Direct was less focussed on how much sporting equipment and clothing it sold in conjunction with those sporting events and instead devoted its energy to conquering what had previously seemed an insurmountable mountain. Its share plan was approved (just) by shareholders at the third time of asking (see our blog post).
  • In other news last week, the Financial Times reported that Fidelity Worldwide Investments has voted against the executive pay proposals of a majority of the FTSE350 companies in which it invests. Fidelity appears keen to exercise the influence that the new regulations have afforded shareholders with the binding policy vote. It was reported that Fidelity voted against the policies of companies that failed to extend their LTIP terms beyond 3 years. However, it seems that Fidelity’s single issue crusade wasn’t taken up by other institutional investors as no FTSE100 companies have suffered a defeat when it comes to their remuneration policies. Indeed, and as detailed in last week’s blog post, the average vote in favour is pretty high.

This week will be slightly busier than last, with Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Burberry holding their AGMs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday respectively. For those waiting expectantly for Tate & Lyle and Vedanta Resource’s DRRs, they have become FTSE250 constituents and the links to their DRRs can therefore be found on our FTSE250 single source document.

Our FTSE100 single source document has been updated to take account of the changes to the FTSE100 constituents and will continue to be updated with AGM results and DRRs as the season progresses.