Fifth of Standard Life shareholders stage pay revolt

The Spring of shareholder discontent continued yesterday after more than a fifth of Standard Life shareholders voted against the company’s remuneration report at its annual meeting in London.

The revolt came enough though chief executive Keith Skeoch had announced last week that he would voluntarily slash his potential earnings for the year by more than £700,000 - although Chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone was quick to stress that some investors had already voted before Mr Skeoch had made his announcement.

At the meeting which was held outside of Scotland for the first time in the Edinburgh-based company’s 191-year history, 22.31 per cent of shareholders voted against the group’s 2015 remuneration report.

Sir Gerry Grimstone said: “This change (Mr Skeoch’s intervention) has come too late to change the directors’ remuneration report which you will be voting on today and a number of shareholders have already voted before the change was made. We will continue to engage with shareholders on these matters.”

Mr Skeoch had moved to head-off a revolt over pay as seen at numerous shareholder meetings recently at major firms such as RBS, Alliance Trust, Weir Group and BP, when he revealed that he will take a bonus package worth 400 per cent of his basic salary for 2016, rather than the existing 500 per cent bonus proposed by the board.

The revised deal means he will receive £2.8 million and not £3.5m.

Sir Gerry said: “Attitudes towards what is appropriate remuneration constantly evolve and what is right one year isn’t necessarily right the next. This was absolutely Keith’s decision but I personally applaud it as being the right thing to do.”

Sir Gerry also used the annual meeting to restate the firm’s stance on remaining in the EU by explaining that to do so is in the best interests of its customers and clients.

He said: “The single market has created an environment that gives individuals and businesses the confidence to invest for the long term and it would be potentially damaging if the UK were to leave it.”