Two directors have quit Vistry’s board in protest at plans for a “Jeff Fairburn-style” pay deal for its chief executive.
Nigel Keen, who chaired the board’s remuneration committee, and fellow non-executive director Katherine Innes-Ker, have stepped down after a group of US shareholders in the FTSE 250 housebuilder put forward the plans to tie bonuses to the share price.
The investors, said to include the activists Inclusive Capital and Browning West, wanted chief executive Greg Fitzgerald to receive £60m if the shares hit £18 within three years, from £7.26 on Friday.
While shareholders have rejected the plans, some on the board feared that Vistry could attract the same negative publicity drawn by Fairburn, ousted as boss of Persimmon in 2018 after pocketing a £75m bonus.
