It is only a few weeks since BP clashed with its shareholders about pay for its top executives at its annual meeting. Now Royal Dutch Shell appears to be heading in the same direction....

....  it will be the second year the Shell board has clashed with shareholders over pay. Last year, they [institutional investors] objected to the oil group’s plan to pay a discretionary award to hold on to three directors in the running to be chief executive. Shareholders objected to the lack of financial or operational targets attached and described it as “pay for respiration”.

The proposal squeaked through with only 50.5 per cent of votes in favour. It was the highest level of dissent against a single resolution from a FTSE100 company in one year, says Manifest, the proxy voting agency.

Source: www.FT.com

By Kate Burgess and Ed Crooks

Published: May 4 2009