The article in the url below reports on a “shareholder revolt” at Shell’s 2008 AGM (Issues: Shareholder Activism, p134) concerning a decision by the Shell board to award “retention payments” of approximately $1.5m in stock to three executives of the firm:
“One third of Shell shareholders who voted on the bonus plan opposed it. Combined with those who withheld their votes, 49.5 per cent of voting shareholders did not support the bonuses.”
The payments were to be paid to the three candidates most likely to succeed Shell’s current CEO when he leaves in June 2009, in order to keep them from leaving the firm:
“The bonuses, each worth about €1m in stock, become payable in 2011, provided the three are still in their posts. Investors objected in part because of the lack of performance hurdles.”
Such shareholder votes of opposition, however, are rarely binding on firms, or even noted by management. And, in this case, in spite of the low level of support for the payments, Shell’s board announced its intention to ignore the vote and continue with its plan.
Another story of shareholder conflict with the management of an oil firm that emerged around the same time as the Shell story concerns the Rockefeller family’s attempts to get Exxon to divide its Chair and CEO positions. Representatives of the Rockefeller family, who are minority shareholders in Exxon, explain their position in the article in the second url below.
Have a good weekend.
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
Shell rocked by investor revolt
By Tom Burgis, Michael Steen and Kate Burgess
428 words
21 May 2008
Financial Times
London Ed1
Page 21
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6681ab10-2693-11dd-9c95-000077b07658.html
Article re-printed in full at:
http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2008/05/21/shell-rocked-by-investor-revolt/
ExxonMobil needs an independent chairman
By Peter O’Neill and Neva Rockefeller Goodwin
22 May 2008
Financial Times
London Ed1
Page 13
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto052120081442070888
