Boohoo could be facing a shareholder uprising following criticism over multimillion-pound bonus payments to its senior executives.
At a vote against Boohoo’s remuneration report at its AGM on Friday, 40% of investors who voted did so against, marking a significant rebuke for the online-only fashion group.
The vote comes after advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis, insurged shareholders to reject the policy, having both raised concerns over Boohoo’s executive pay packages.
ISS said Boohoo failed to explain why it was awarding Dan Finley, its chief executive, a £2m bonus just months after he started the role, while Glass Lewis criticised Boohoo for paying out executive bonuses regardless of the company’s performance.
First reported by The Telegraph, on Friday Boohoo defended its pay packages, saying they were designed to “attract and retain the leadership team”.
The company maintained that the overwhelming majority of shareholders had backed the proposal – except for Frasers Group – its biggest investor, which owns just under 30% of the business.
Nearly 40% of shareholders also rejected numerous other proposals, including the re-election of both its chief executive and chairman.
Boohoo attributed this opposition once again to Frasers. The company stated it was “pleased that over 98% of shareholders, excluding a major competitor, supported the resolutions to re-appoint and re-elect the directors”.
A spokesman for Frasers told the newspaper: “In their dreams are they a competitor, let alone a major one. Their board are specialists in failure and should be sacked.”
Boohoo declined to comment.
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