This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

Unjustified Remuneration at Greggs and Avast

The markets seem to be settling down from the Covid-19 panic even if the impact on company results is far from clear. But it has given me time to read the Remuneration section of a couple of Annual Reports.

Firstly Greggs (GRG). Their Annual Report is a masterpiece of explaining why the company has been so successful of late – to quote from it: “Cheers to a record-breaking year. Since 1939 we have been on a roll….”. But it was clearly written before all their stores were closed.

Their Remuneration Report consists of 28 pages which is way too many. CEO total pay last year was £2.5 million – up by 46%. They did have a very good year but EPS was only up 32%. But the board appears to consider pay is inadequate so this is what the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee (Sandra Turner) has to say:

Annual Bonus: The current policy allows for a maximum individual policy limit of 125 per cent of salary for the Chief Executive and 90 per cent of salary for other Executive Directors. It is proposed that the individual policy limit will be increased to 150 per cent of salary for the Chief Executive and 125 per cent of salary for the other Executive Directors. PSP: The current policy allows for PSP awards of 115 per cent of salary for the Chief Executive and 95 per cent of salary for other Executive Directors (150 per cent in exceptional circumstances). It is proposed that the new policy will provide for awards of 150 per cent of salary for the Chief Executive and 125 per cent of salary for other Executive Directors (with awards up to 150 per cent possible in exceptional circumstances)……

The Remuneration Committee is aware that the changes outlined above incorporate increases to reward opportunities under both the annual bonus scheme and the PSP, and that there are understandable sensitivities around increasing executive pay levels in the current political, economic and regulatory climate. However, the Committee wishes to ensure that the Executive Directors are appropriately rewarded for their contributions to the next stage of the Company’s growth, and we have been concerned that the pay opportunities under the existing policy no longer reflect what is appropriate or competitive for the leaders of a successful FTSE 250 company. We believe that the revised award levels are required to ensure that the policy is fit-for-purpose for the next policy cycle and will ensure that Executive Directors are appropriately incentivised to deliver and drive the business forward and are rewarded for success. As noted above, for 2020 we are not increasing all elements of pay for the Chief Executive and the Finance Director to the maximum levels permitted under the new policy, but we wish to retain a suitable level of headroom.

It is also important that we have the right structure in place as part of our succession planning processes. Should we need to recruit externally at senior levels during the policy period, we would like to have headroom in relation to the annual bonus and PSP opportunities in order to be sufficiently competitive in the market. Even taking into account the proposed increases, we believe that when compared against the market more broadly, the pay for the Executive Directors remains at below mid-market levels and total remuneration is positioned appropriately, thus demonstrating an ongoing focus on restraint”.

You can see how the pay is being ratcheted up and telling us it is below mid-market levels is no justification. Not everyone can be above the average. Greggs undoubtedly employs many low-paid workers. Their figure for “All Colleague Costs” only went up by 11.4% last year. Clearly another example of the better paid getting richer, while the poorer are not equally benefiting from the success of the company.

Am I suggesting the lower paid in the company should be paid more? Not necessarily. But the increases at the top are not justified, however good a job they are doing. I suggest shareholders should vote against the new Remuneration Policy and Performance Share Plan (PSP) resolutions even if they consider last years Remuneration Report is acceptable.

The Remuneration Report of Avast (AVST) is only 16 pages. The total pay of the CEO, Andrej Vicek, in 2019 is given as $6,933,411 but he was only made CEO through part of the year. The vast majority of the total pay comes from the value of an LTIP. The former CEO received even more.

Some 95% of shareholders voted to support the Remuneration Policy in May 2019. The company’s excuse for the high level of pay is this: “Our Directors’ Remuneration Policy has been designed to incorporate the best practice features of the typical UK pay model while setting reward levels, particularly long-term incentive opportunities, at a level that recognises that we source talent in a global market and in particular from the US where pay models are different to the UK”. But this is a UK listed company and many of its operations are not in the USA.

But the CEO has made a token gesture by indefinitely waiving his annual salary and bonus (not including the portion related to his Board fee) for a nominal annual salary of $1. He has also notified the Board of his decision to donate 100% of his Board Directors’ fee ($100,000 per annum) to charity. He will continue to receive an annual LTIP award, calculated as a multiple of his (waived) base salary.

Avast was originally founded as a co-operative in Czechoslovakia but listed in the UK in 2018 after taking over AVG. How times change!

I will be voting against the Remuneration Report at this company and I suggest other shareholders should do the same.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.