Whitbread Shareholders Told To Reject Pay Report

15th Jun 2010 13:20

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Whitbread PLC (WTB.LN) shareholders should vote against the company's executive pay scheme at the leisure firm's forthcoming annual general meeting, shareholder advisory group PIRC said Tuesday. PIRC said in a statement that it had a number of issues with the Premier Inn and Costa Coffee operator's remuneration report. "We recommend shareholders oppose the remuneration report," it said. Whitbread's shareholders will vote on the report at a shareholder meeting on June 22. PIRC pointed out that the specific targets for the executive team's bonus payments have not been quantified by the company and that some of the performance targets connected with long-term incentives were not sufficiently challenging. "Although salaries are below median for the sector, aggregate awards made during the year are considered to be excessive," it said. Whitbread paid its Chief Executive Alan Parker GBP2.14 million in the year to March 4, up from GBP1.7 million the previous year, while Finance Director Chris Rogers received GBP1.61 million, up from GBP1.04 million. The company's share price more than doubled over the same period as Whitbread performed strongly through the recession. -By Michael Carolan, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9278; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 15, 2010 08:20 ET (12:20 GMT)