Morrisons share price: Shareholders revolt over executive pay

Nearly a fifth Wm Morrison Supermarkets’ (LON:MRW) shareholders have refused to vote in favour of the group’s remuneration report, the Guardian has revealed. The supermarket has become the latest FTSE 100 company to face an investor revolt over executive pay at its annual general meeting.

Morrisons’ share price has fallen into the red in today’s session, having lost 0.91 percent to 184.80p as of 09:34 BST. The decline is part of a broader market selloff which has seen the blue-chip FTSE 100 index shed 1.08 percent to stand at 6,164.31 points. The grocer’s shares have gained more than two percent over the past year, and are up by nearly a quarter in the year-to-date.
The Guardian reported last night that nearly 20 percent of Morrisons’ shareholders had failed to back the group’s remuneration report yesterday. Last month, the company revealed that its chief executive David Potts had been awarded a £1-million bonus, taking his total pay package for last year to £2.25 million.

The newspaper quoted the group’s chair Andy Higginson as commenting that the vote was “a pretty positive number in the current climate,” noting that remuneration was a ‘non issue’ for the blue-chip grocer. One independent shareholder attending the meeting at Morrisons’ head office in Bradford, however, told the Guardian that “bosses get too much,” adding that there “should be more for shareholders”.
Sir Ken Morrison, the man who built up the supermarket chain and remains a significant shareholder, meanwhile commented that the group’s turnaround was still “a work in progress”.
“There is still a lot to do but they are getting on with it,” he pointed out, as quoted by the Guardian.
Morrisons, which has been struggling alongside peers with severe competition in the UK grocery market, revealed in March that its full-year sales and profits had fallen in the year ended January 31, 2016, and cautioned that its turnaround would ‘take time’.
As of 09:51 BST, Friday, 10 June, Wm. Morrison Supermarkets plc share price is 184.75p.