Capital Shopping Centres’ shareholders have rebelled over “excessive” executive pay.
At the shopping centre owner’s annual general meeting yesterday, more then a quarter of investors voted against the directors’ remuneration.
David Fischel, the company’s chief executive, was paid £1.27m last year including a bonus and deferred shares, while Matthew Roberts, CSC’s finance director, was paid £922,000. They also received long-term share awards worth a combined £2.3m.
The protest votes from 28.7% of shareholders followed reports from two shareholder advisory groups, Pirc and Institutional Shareholder Services, which said that the package of awards was “excessive”.
It is the third year in a row that the FTSE 100 company has awarded Fischel and Roberts cash and share bonuses in excess of 200% of their salary, despite pledging only to do so in “exceptional circumstances”.
The appointment of Lady Patten as a non-executive director at CSC, which owns Lakeside Centre in Essex and the Trafford Centre in Manchester, was approved by more than 99% of shareholders.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
