Bayer gets shareholder rebuke for management remuneration
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Shareholders of Bayer on Friday voted to reprimand the German drug and farming provides maker for its high administration pay scheme, after one main proxy advisory group stated it didn’t adequately mirror Bayer’s litigation burden.
At Friday’s annual normal assembly, 75.89% of shareholders voted towards approval of the report on govt board compensation.
Within the run-up to the vote, advisory agency Glass Lewis wrote in a report that it took subject with how Bayer adjusted a administration payout element that’s contingent on group money circulation to strip out the impact of main litigation.
Settlements of U.S. claims that weedkiller Roundup causes most cancers have price Bayer billions. Bayer has repeatedly stated that the product is protected to make use of, which has been confirmed by U.S. and European environmental regulators.
“We discover the influence of litigations needs to be accounted for in administration board’s remuneration outcomes,” Glass Lewis stated within the report on the time.
Even robust the vote has no direct authorized penalties, it marks one other setback in Bayer’s shareholder relations after traders in 2019 voted to disapprove of how Chief Government Werner Baumann and his high group had managed the corporate.
Traders took subject on the time with how Bayer dealt with lawsuits associated to Roundup, a product inherited as a part of the 2018 takeover of Monsanto.
Bayer’s govt board, nonetheless gained clear votes of confidence from shareholders finally 12 months’s annual normal assembly (AGM) and in 2020.
Shareholders on Friday voted 82% in favour of the chief board’s actions through the previous enterprise 12 months.
In Germany administration compensation resolutions aren’t legally binding, and the supervisory board stays liable for setting the compensation of the administration board no matter this shareholders’ vote.
Norway’s $1.3 trillion wealth fund, which holds 2.27% in Bayer, stated this month it might vote towards the remuneration bundle.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Extra reporting by Christoph Steitz; enhancing by David Evans)
