Yahoo Finance Investors give London Stock Exchange a bloody nose over boss’s pay rise
The London Stock Exchange has suffered a bloody nose after almost a quarter of shareholders rejected a pay rise for its chief executive.
However, the group (LSEG) pushed through its pay package for directors at its annual general meeting as it secured the necessary 50% approval rate.
Shareholder advisory body ISS had urged a vote against chief David Schwimmer’s 25% salary increase for the past year, boosting his base pay by £200,000.
The boss’s total pay packet also more than doubled in 2020 to £6.9 million.
ISS has warned that the award was “not considered sufficiently merited” amid problems with the group’s £19 billion takeover of market data specialist Refinitiv.
At the annual general meeting on Wednesday, 23.52% of shareholder votes were cast against the remuneration plans.
In a statement, the firm said: “Although shareholders were broadly supportive of the underlying principle of the CEO’s increase in base salary post completion of the Refinitiv transaction we recognise that certain shareholders would have preferred the increase to have been phased.
“Following the Annual General Meeting, LSEG will continue to engage with its shareholders and will carefully consider all further feedback.
“We will publish an update on that engagement within six months of the Annual General Meeting, in accordance with the UK corporate governance code.”
Shares in the firm were up by 0.3% at the close of play on Wednesday.
