Sainsbury’s reprimands for pay for fifth of investors opposed to Reuters report

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) – Nearly one-fifth of the votes cast at Sainsbury’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday were opposed in the British supermarket group’s payroll report in protest of recent investors against executive salaries.

Prior to the meeting, the investor advisory group advised shareholders to vote against the report, as the board’s remuneration committee decided to apply upward discretion to payments for 2020-2021.

Investors are increasingly opposed to payments for meeting rooms that society considers excessive in the broad struggles that society is waging in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, investors in Morrisons completely rejected the food payment report.

According to Sainsbury’s, 19.4% of the votes cast were against the resolution approving the salary report, and 80.6% were in favor.

He has highlighted the opposition.

“The Remuneration Committee regularly consults with our major shareholders to understand their views on key decisions, and we will continue with this conversation in the coming years,” he said.

Both physically and virtually at the meeting, President Martin Scicluna was asked if Sainsbury’s weak ownership Morrisons had decided to agree to a £ 6.3 billion ($ 8.7 billion) private equity purchase but did not want to be attracted to the issue.

“What I can say is what we’re doing, and what we’re doing is very clear (focus) on the strategy that Simon (Roberts) has approved for management and has been put in place around execution. That plan,” he said.

“We are very pleased with the progress we are making and the operational improvements we are making in the business and we are very pleased that the market recognizes this, and you will see and notice the performance above the stock price in recent months.”

Sainsbury’s shares are up 26% this year.

Offer speculation has been around the group since Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky raised his stake to less than 10% in April and has been fueled by a potential bid for Morrisons for the past three weeks.

($ 1 = 0.7227 pounds)