I wonder what happens next Wednesday? Formatting article not too good, sorry

From AFR

Whitehaven accused of paying ‘overly generous’ bonuses

Peter KerResources reporter

Oct 16, 2024 – 1.48pm

Whitehaven Coal’sexecutive pay regimeis too generous and should incur a second consecutive strike at this year’s shareholder meeting, proxy adviser CGI Glass Lewis has recommended.

The coal miner disputes the proxy adviser’s calculations and is standing by its proposed award to managing director Paul Flynn.

The partnership of Paul Flynn (left) and Mark Vaile (right) has led Whitehaven Coal for 12 years. Michael Quelch

More than 40 per cent of votes castat last year’s Whitehaven annual general meeting rejected the miner’s remuneration report, and the company could face a board spill resolution if shareholders deliver another censure on October 30.

Fixed salaries for Whitehaven executives increased by about 4 per cent in the year to June 30, 2024, which the company said was “well below broader workforce increases”.

But Glass Lewis took particular issue with Whitehaven’s plan to pay Mr Flynn a special “one-time transitional award” which is designed to recognise a two-year “vesting gap” between the company’s old and new bonus schemes.

Glass Lewis said the special award would be worth between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of fixed pay. It believed Mr Flynn would be able to tap other incentive payments and the special award was therefore a “double dip”.

“We find the transition grant arrangements are too generous to executives to be supportable. As a result, we are opposing the 2024 remuneration report,” it wrote in a note to clients.

But a Whitehaven spokesman said Glass Lewis had not fully accounted for the vesting gap in its calculations nor an element of the old remuneration scheme called “dividend equivalent payments”.

The spokesman said those calculations had led the proxy adviser to “erroneous” conclusions.

A portion of the 40 per cent vote against Whitehaven’s remuneration report last year was understood to come fromactivist investor Bell Rock, which was campaigning at the time against Whitehaven’s plan to acquire BHP’s Daunia and Blackwater coking coal mines.

Filings to the ASX suggest Bell Rock reduced its investment in Whitehaven shortly after last year’s meeting.