By Kate Burgess in London and Michael Steen in The Hague
Published: May 20 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 20 2009 03:00
A global investor backlash over executive pay escalated yesterday when shareholders turned on Royal Dutch Shell and voted against its executive pay plan.
In one of the biggest investor rebellions over directors’ pay, 59 per cent of the oil multi-national’s shareholders voted down its remuneration report.
They objected to the discretionary award to executive directors of bonuses for 2006-08 performance, which were made even though the company failed to meet targets.
The scale of the No vote was strong evidence of the growing anger over remuneration and bonuses among shareholders, who have been criticised by regulators and politiciansin the wake of the financial crisis for failing to hold boards to account.
Guy Jubb, head of corporate governance at Standard Life Investments, said he was “dismayed” at the pay of Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s chief executive. He warned that shareholders would “respond robustly” to “persistent offenders”.
Mr van der Veer, who steps down in June, received a bonus from the 2006-08 incentive scheme valued at 1.35m (£1.19m). He was also paid 10.3m in 2008, up 58 per cent on his remuneration in 2007, according to Shell’s annual report.
The protest was the second successive year that Shell and investors have clashed over pay and follows disputes between shareholders and companies including BP, Xstrata, Heinekenand Volvo.
Institutional investors from the US, Europe and Canada, including Franklin Mutual as well as Standard Life Investments, lined up at Shell’s annual meeting in The Hague and London to speak out against the report. Their biggest objection was the decision of the remuneration committee, led by Sir Peter Job, to award the performance bonuses.
“The system is sick and needs amending,” said Errol Keyner of VEB, the Dutch shareholders’ association.
The Shell No vote was the second biggest against a UK company’s remuneration report this year, topped only by the 80 per cent of votes cast against Royal Bank of Scotland, according to Manifest, the voting agency.
RiskMetrics, the proxy voting agency that advised investors to vote against Shell’s report, said investors were uniting on pay issues in the UK and much of the rest of Europe. “When dialogue has clearly failed, shareholders are now prepared to vote against,” said Jean-Nicolas Caprasse, its head of European and Middle Eastern business.
Votes on remuneration reports are not binding. But Jorma Ollila, chairman, said: “We take the outcome of this vote very seriously and we will reflect carefully upon it.” He said the group would accelerate its timetable of meetings with big shareholders.
Lombard, Flak over bonuses and People, Page 18 C&W pay plan, Page 21
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
