Vodafone investors urged to vote against its chief executive’s pay

Investors at FTSE100 telecoms giant Vodafone have been urged to vote against its chief executive’s pay at this week’s annual meeting. 

Nick Read has been handed £4.1million, up from £3.5million a year earlier. His annual pay has been boosted by a £1.45million bonus and share awards worth £1.5million. 

Shareholder adviser PIRC said the reward package was ‘not acceptable’ and urged investors to vote against the firm’s pay policy.

It said Read’s remuneration over the last five years has not been aligned with shareholder returns after the stock price declined 45 per cent in the period. 

Luke Hildyard, director at the High Pay Centre, said the package was ‘very hard’ to justify. Read is under pressure to improve Vodafone’s share price after Europe’s largest activist investor Cevian Capital emerged with a stake in the group earlier this year. 

Two institutional shareholder advisers, ISS and Glass Lewis, have recommended investors vote in favour of Read’s pay. 

Vodafone said: ‘Last year’s remuneration report was approved by nearly 98 per cent of shareholders. We are confident that at our AGM on Tuesday we will see similar levels of support.’