PIRC recommends Prudential shareholders vote against pay, chairman

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Governance adviser PIRC recommended on Tuesday that Prudential (SES: K6S.SI - news) shareholders oppose the insurer's pay policy and report, and the re-election of chairman Paul Manduca at the company's annual general meeting next week.

Prudential's remuneration policy, which sets out future executive pay awards, has a maximum potential award for Chief (Taiwan OTC: 3345.TWO - news) Executive Mike Wells of 600 percent of salary, which PIRC said was "excessive".

The maximum award for the chief executive of M&G (Shanghai: 603899.SS - news) , Anne (Shenzhen: 002235.SZ - news) Richards, is 1,050 percent of salary, which PIRC said in a report was "not acceptable".

PIRC also recommended opposing Prudential's remuneration report for 2016, saying Wells' total bonus pay of 432 percent of salary was excessive, while the total bonus of 638 percent of salary for the firm's Asia business head, Barry Stowe, was "highly excessive".

It recommended opposing the re-election of Chairman Paul Manduca, citing the lack of a target to increase the number of women on the company's board.

Prudential holds its AGM on May 18. (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Simon Jessop)