Aston Martin investors rebel over executive pay and chairman

Luxury carmaker Aston Martin suffered an investor rebellion at its annual meeting, with sizeable votes against the company’s pay report and executive chairman Lawrence Stroll.

The pay report was opposed by 18 per cent of shareholders who cast their votes at the meeting on Tuesday, while almost 17 per cent opposed the re-election of Stroll, who took on the role in April last year following his rescue bailout of the luxury carmaker.

Shareholder advisory groups Glass Lewis and ISS had flagged Aston’s decision to pay executive bonuses last year as a potential flashpoint, as well as the company’s lack of female board members.

When Stroll joined the company last April, he cleared out much of Aston’s board and is in the process of rebuilding it.

Currently, the carmaker has only one female board member, making it one of the worst FTSE 350 groups for board diversity, according to the government-backed Hampton-Alexander review.

Under the review, the UK’s largest listed companies had until the end of 2020 to appoint women voluntarily to a third of board positions.

Before the meeting, Glass Lewis had advised investors to vote against Stroll in his capacity as head of the nominations committee because of the lack of diversity.

On Tuesday, Aston Martin said: “Aston Martin is pleased that all of the resolutions were passed at today’s AGM. The board of Aston Martin continues to focus on its composition and the need to increase diversity in line with Hampton-Alexander principles. This is a matter of priority for the board and we expect to be able to update on progress very soon.”

Separately, ISS had advised investors to vote against the company’s pay report because of the decision to pay bonuses.

While Stroll decided to work for a salary of £1, the carmaker’s chief executive Tobias Moers last year received a package worth £1.5m, including a bonus of £142,000 and payments of £900,000 for leaving Mercedes during the year.

Aston’s finance boss Ken Gregor, who also joined during the year, received a £322,000 package that included a bonus of £67,000.

In its annual report, Aston said the board “considered it important to operate some form of annual bonus for the year, to incentivise and recognise the significant efforts of the senior team (including the new CEO and CFO since they joined Aston Martin) in a challenging year of business turnround”.

Stroll made his fortune moving brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren upmarket, and aims to restore the luxury credentials of the company, which has struggled financially since an ill-fated initial public offering in 2018.

Over the past year Aston cleared out its unsold cars from dealerships in order to realign supply with demand and in an effort to improve the residual values of its models.

The group beat sales expectations in the first quarter of the year thanks to demand for its DBX sport utility vehicle, though it is unlikely to return to profitability until later in the year.