It’s amazing really that shareholders in Big Oil really only ever seem to care about the size of the bonuses of the top executives or the size of their reserves.
The fact that their investments are fuelling climate change is not a concern for mainstream investors.
So rather than be angry that Shell has dropped its key renewables division and has essentially stopped investing in wind and solar, the company’s investors are angry that directors received thousands of shares despite missing a key performance target.
In a rare public statement, Standard Life Investments, a top-ten shareholder, signalled that it would be voting against the discretionary payments at Shell’s AGM this month.
Guy Jubb, head of corporate governance at Standard Life, said: “As a matter of principle, we don’t support rewarding executives for achieving unchallenging performance conditions. This is the second year in a row that the remuneration committee has used its discretion to reward the executives for below-average returns to shareholders, which raises serious questions about whose interests they are looking after.”
Standard Life holds a whopping 46.6million shares in Shell, or 1.73 per cent of the company – worth £735 million. Standard Life’s criticisms follow those of RiskMetrics, the voting advisory service watched by pension funds, that has also recommended that shareholders vote against Shell’s remuneration report at the annual meeting on May 19.
The shares award, including a 79,000 allocation worth £1.25million to Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive, comes after Shell finished fourth behind Total, the French group, in a comparative table of its peers.
As van der Veer prepares to retire with a healthy pay packet – he leaves behind a disastrous legacy for the company. Shell has recently given up on renewable and is moving into dirty uncoventionals. It is still flaring in Nigeria, despite years of broken promises.
Why aren’t the shareholders revolting about that ????