The chief executive of We Buy Any Car owner BCA Marketplace PLC (LON:BCA) is facing a possible shareholder revolt over her “exceptionally disproportionate” annual bonus.
Avril Palmer-Baunack, one of the UK’s best-paid female executives, is set to receive a £29mln bonus as part of an incentive plan drawn up when the company, then called Haversham Holdings, first listed at the end of 2014.
Only an advisory vote
Alongside the annual pay packet, one of the biggest ever handed down to a female boss, the 54-year-old is also on course for an 8% rise in her basic salary to £525,000.
Influential advisory firm Glass Lewis has said the bonus is too high and has called on shareholders to vote against it at BCA’s annual general meeting on Thursday.
BCA shares have added more than 50% over the past six months and have almost doubled since the firm’s initial public offering.
But Glass Lewis claims that rise could be the result of broader swings in stock market prices ‘rather than company or management performance’.
Not the first time …
The vote is only advisory though, so Palmer-Baunack will be able to keep the lot if she feels able to shrug off the criticism.
It is not the first time the Edinburgh-born CEO has come under fire for her bonus either.
Back in 2015, she defended her £7.1mln pay packet by saying: “Anyone who says they don’t want money is talking b*******. We all want to earn money for our family.”
Investors have had enough
The possibility of a shareholder revolt at BCA is part of a wider rebellion over executive pay, something which has come to the fore over the past 12 months.
Almost three-quarters of Royal Mail PLC (LON:RMG) shareholders refused to support the pay package awarded to its new chief executive last month, while 64% failed to back a £75mln pay-out for housebuilder Persimmon PLC’s (LON:PSMN) boss Jeff Fairburn in April.
Former WPP PLC (LON:WPP) chief Martin Sorrell was no stranger to a revolt over his pay either, having reportedly picked up more than £200mln from the ad giant he founded between 2012 and his departure earlier this year.
“These things have drifted away from reality and it’s got to the point where it’s unbelievable money,” said Terry Pullinger, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers’ Union, in the wake of the Royal Mail remuneration report.