Tate & Lyle faces shareholder revolt over executive pay
London Stock Exchange stalwart Tate & Lyle faces an investor revolt over its chief executive’s salary after failing to address shareholder concerns about its executive-level pay.
The FTSE 250 ingredients firm could be overruled by its investors at its annual general meeting (AGM) on Wednesday after coming under pressure from a leading shareholder advisory firm.
Glass Lewis, which offers advice to investors, has told Tate & Lyle shareholders to vote against the group’s remuneration report.
At its last AGM it proposed to hike the salary of chief executive Nick Hampton by 13.4 per cent to £820,000.
The pay rise was handed out to reward Hampton for his “strategic transformation of the business and to reposition [his] salary closer to market norms,” the company said.
Board ‘should have been proactive’
But the package was opposed by nearly 24 per cent of voting investors, exceeding the 20 per cent level which Glass Lewis says “represents a fair level of shareholder protest”.
In the event of this level of opposition, “boards should engage with shareholders, take steps to address their concerns and explicitly address this dissent in their publicly-available documents,” the shareholder proxy said.
Glass Lewis said that Tate & Lyle’s failure to sufficiently engage with the shareholder rebellion over this pay package means that they cannot support this year’s remuneration package.
“The committee might reasonably have been expected to take a more proactive approach in addressing these issues.
“As such, and given the committee’s disclosure in this regard lags that of peers, this issue precludes a supportive recommendation at this time,” the group said.
Tate & Lyle to exit FTSE
Tate & Lyle is well-known for its golden syrup brand but offloaded the rights to its sugar business in 2010. It has since expanded its ingredients and flavourings business.
The firm was created in 1921, after the sons of rival sugar refiners Henry Tate and Adram Lyle merged their fathers’ firms following their deaths.
It has been listed in London since 1938 but in June accepted a £2.7bn takeover offer from US rival Ingredion.
The deal came after the company revealed a “disappointing” 10 per cent profit drop to £238m as it battled with slowing consumer demand.
Tate & Lyle declined to comment.