The past couple of weeks has seen numerous FTSE100 companies publishing their DRRs and executive remuneration has started to hit the headlines again. Shell’s CEO Ben van Beurden was the centre of attention last week with the value of his pension payments and a tax equalisation payment due to his relocation to the UK contributing significantly to a headline generating €24m for 2014. There has been talk of a shareholder protest but we won’t know for sure until Shell’s AGM on 19 May 2015.  The current oil price and problems faced by this sector will no doubt encourage criticism of this level of remuneration although the company has been at pains to note that the CEO had not benefited from any special treatment and his benefits were managed consistently with other employees.

For companies which have not yet released their DRRs, those already published will provide useful examples if they are facing any issues in this, the second year of the new DRR regulations. The tables have turned and now the majority of FTSE100 companies have stuck with their policy from last year and only the implementation report will be voted on at the AGM. The intended longevity of the remuneration policy now appears to be prevailing.

Last week the following FTSE100 companies published their DRRs:

• Astrazeneca

• Bunzl

• CRH

• Lloyds Banking Group

• Royal Dutch Shell

The previous week the total was nine so the rate has slowed slightly, although there are still many 31 December year end FTSE100 companies still to publish their reports, so expect DRRs to keep being published regularly over the next few weeks.

Sage Group is the only company to have recently held their AGM, receiving a vote of 95% in favour of its implementation report (the policy report was not voted on this year), no issues there.

Once again we are maintaining a single source document which will keep track of the FTSE100 DRRs that have been released, along with details of the voting from last year’s and this year’s AGMs in respect of the DRRs.