holders unhappy with huge salary of CEO

CEO gets increase to $6.78m/annum despite huge loss posted by Santos.

From today's Oz:

'Santos shareholders have delivered a strong rebuke over the company’s recent performance, coming very close to delivering a first strike on remuneration at the company’s Adelaide annual meeting yesterday.
At the meeting, 23.4 per cent of shares were voted against adopting the company’s remuneration report, falling just short of the 25 per cent needed for a first strike and the prospect of a board spill if another strike was received.
In 2014, the total remuneration of all key executives rose, despite $1.56 billion of after-tax impairments on reserve downgrades and lower oil prices delivering the company a full-year loss and the share price falling 44 per cent over the year.
Chief executive David Knox’s total remuneration rose from $6.26 million to $6.78m after he was paid 63 per cent of his potential bonuses.
Chairman Peter Coates, who returned to the position at the end of yesterday’s meeting following the recent departure of Ken Borda, said he was not happy about the vote.
“Yes, it’s embarrassing,” Mr Coates told reporters after the meeting.
“It’s a message to us from shareholders that we need to have another look at our remuneration structure.”
The new chairman said a number of the short-term bonus measures were based on operational parameters, including things such as safety, production and cost-cutting, which he said had been excellent.
“Unfortunately, with the share price failure and the impairments, we ended up with a bad net result,” Mr Coates said. “I can understand the way shareholders feel and I can understand the vote — we need to look at the framework again.”
He said he was not aware of any common thread that had driven the high vote against the report.
“I want the remuneration committee to sit down and look carefully at what has happened and analyse why we had the vote against us,” the chairman said.
“We’ll address those issues and come up with something better.”
There were no speakers against the remuneration report at the meeting where the company’s controversial Narrabri coal-seam gas project in NSW, which is stalled amid community opposition and Santos cost-cutting, was again a key focus of protesters.
The good news for Santos investors yesterday was the declaration that the company would start making surplus cash and be able to pay down debt from the fourth quarter, after the $US18.5 billion ($23.3bn) Gladstone LNG plant starts exporting. However, the debt reduction relied on oil prices staying above $US60 a barrel.
The company and investors have been growing more confident on GLNG in recent months, with an official target of first exports set for September this year.
On Gladstone’s Curtis Island, where the plant is being built, the stretch target being aimed for by the plant builders is July exports.
“In 2015, at a widely forecast average oil price of $US60 a barrel, we expect to be free cashflow positive in the fourth quarter,” Mr Knox said.
“With GLNG also operational and shipping LNG cargoes we will be free cashflow positive — after capital expenditure — for the full year in 2016 using the same oil price assumptions.
“That allows us to start to lower our debt.”
Santos has been among the hardest hit energy producers on oil price weakness over the past year, with its shares down 40 per cent. Santos ended down 2c at $8.26 yesterday.'