British Gas proprietor Centrica faces pay revolt from prime City agency

The proprietor of British Gas is going through criticism from a number one City investor over the multimillion pound pay package deal handed to its chief govt after persistent criticism of windfall positive factors triggered by share value collapses through the pandemic.

Sky News can reveal that abrdn, one of many London inventory market’s most influential institutional shareholders, will vote towards Centrica’s remuneration report later this month amid discontent about long-term incentives awarded through the COVID-19 disaster.

Chris O’Shea, Centrica’s CEO, was paid £4.5m final yr regardless of controversy about power suppliers’ earnings and a scandal involving its remedy of shoppers utilizing pre-payment meters.

The head of energetic possession at abrdn, Andrew Mason, mentioned it had determined to oppose Centrica’s remuneration report each due to its CEO’s windfall bonus and the pre-payment meter disaster.

“In 2020 the CEO received a Long-Term Incentive Plan grant which was not meaningfully reduced to reflect the depressed share price during Europe’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mr Mason mentioned.

“This has resulted in a windfall award to the CEO valued at £2.26m.

“Second, the corporate has awarded the CEO a beneficiant annual bonus of £1.42m which we don’t regard as reflective of the impression of compelled prepayment installations on susceptible prospects through the ongoing price of residing disaster and the present ongoing probe by Ofgem.

“We are concerned that the remuneration committee’s decisions harm the reputation of the company, fail to reflect the experience of vulnerable customers, and are misaligned with shareholder interests.”

Although it owns simply 0.5% of Centrica’s shares, abrdn’s stance underlines the sensitivity of City traders to notion of extra positive factors arising from the share value slumps seen throughout the financial system through the pandemic.

The prospect of a large-scale revolt towards Centrica’s remuneration report, nevertheless, is slim: each Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services, the 2 greatest proxy advisers, have really helpful voting in favour of the decision.

Centrica declined to remark.