Investor outrage over Slater's bonus spree, page-2

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by Patrick Durkin
Angry investors in beleaguered class action law firm Slater & Gordon plan to protest on Friday over big bonuses being paid to executives and the board, despite a $1.02 billion full-year loss following last year's disastrous UK acquisition.

Building products giant Boral, listed fund manager Perpetual and struggling distributor Hills also face fiery shareholder meetings on Thursday and Friday as investors take issue with a range of executive pay and performance issues.

Slater's chairman John Skippen, who has resigned from the Super Retail board in the wake of an investor backlash, and his board had their fees boosted by more than 50 per cent as the law firm lost three directors and sought to bring in new directors to deal with the crisis.

The payment of an $189,600 bonus to group CFO Bryce Houghton and a $93,750 bonus to group COO Felicity Pantelidis has outraged investors who plan to register their displeasure at the firm's AGM on Friday.

Slater's managing director Andrew Grech also wants shareholders to approve the grant of 485,673 performance rights on top of his existing $637,000 pay packet, despite a year marred by accounting errors, regulatory probes and the 1.3 billion UK acquisition which has cost investors millions and left the firm's international ambitions in tatters.

Not justified

"Given the company's recent performance ... we believe that this plan should be suspended," the Australian Shareholders' Association warn.

"We acknowledge that this is a critical time for the company and it is seen as imperative for the business to hold existing staff to be able to take it back to prosperity, however, the combination of the increased non-executive directors fees, retention payments and [bonus] awards means we will be voting against the remuneration report," the ASA said.

Mr Grech, who offered to resign after the shocking first-half result, has promised to turn the business around within two years by cutting costs and has already reduced staff numbers in Britain by 14 per cent and closed four UK offices.

But shareholder advisory firm ISS agreed the "bonus payments cannot be justified".

"The CFO received a cash bonus of $100,000 which was not subject to any performance measures but was paid on completion of the CFO's probation period," ISS said.

"These bonus payments cannot be justified and are not reflective of the damage and personal losses of other partners and staff of the firm, and investors during this period."



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