Breon Corcoran, Betfair chief executive, could be entitled to a bonus of up to 380% of his salary, something that angered some shareholders. Photograph: Anna Gowthorpe/PA
Nearly a third of shareholders in online betting exchange Betfair on Thursday voted against pay and bonus deals for chief executive Breon Corcoran.
Corporate governance group Pirc had been critical of pay arrangements at Betfair ahead of the group's annual meeting, noting that Corcoran could be entitled to a bonus of up to 380% of his salary. It described performance benchmarks as "not adequate" and suggested share rewards were released too quickly.
Corcoran's pay package was worth 1.28m for 2014, according to the annual report, down from 3.7m the previous year, when he joined the business. His 2013 remuneration was boosted by a "golden hello" of restricted share awards and payments to cover his relocation from Ireland.
A Pirc report, issued earlier this week, told investors: "Awarded [Betfair] CEO pay is not considered in line with the company's financial performance over the last five years."
Pirc had recommended a binding vote against Betfair's boardroom pay policy, but investors chose to deliver a warning shot to Leo Quinn, the board's remuneration committee chairman who took over in April.
Some 24m shares, 32% of votes cast, were against Betfair's remuneration report, with a further 2.2m abstention votes underlining the unpopularity of the group's executive pay deals. Last year, only 4.6% or shareholders voted against the pay report. There was only a small ripple of protest from shareholders in relation to Betfair's annual report, with 6% of votes case either against or in abstention to the resolution.
A usually uncontentious matter, this vote to receive the financial statements of directors and auditors KPMG attracted controversy after Betfair was forced to concede in its 2014 annual report that it had technically breached certain rules relating to dividends and share buybacks in past years.
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