LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - A number of investor advisory groups have called on AstraZeneca shareholders to oppose plans to increase Chief Executive Pascal Soriot's pay package when the COVID-19 vaccine maker holds its annual meeting on Tuesday.
AstraZeneca developed one of the first vaccines to tackle the novel coronavirus but the Anglo-Swedish company has suffered a series of setbacks, with disputes over supplies to the European Union and concerns over the risk of rare blood clots.
Frenchman Soriot, who has been in charge of AstraZeneca since 2012, received a total pay package worth 15.4 million pounds ($21.7 million) last year. Most of that comprised bonuses and long-term share awards on top of a base salary of 1.3 million pounds.
Under the new proposals, Soriot's maximum annual bonus will increase to 250% of base salary from 200%, and he will be entitled to long-term share awards worth up to 650% of his salary, an increase from the current 550%.
Investor advisory groups ISS, Glass Lewis and PIRC all recommended that shareholders vote against the increases on the grounds that the potential rewards were excessive.
AstraZeneca said the company's strong performance in recent years justified the rewards.
"This has resulted in AstraZeneca delivering a Total Shareholder Return of close to 300% over the last eight years, significantly ahead of our global pharmaceutical and FTSE 100 peers (at 183% and 44% TSR respectively)," a company spokesman said.
"The board wants to ensure that our remuneration policy keeps driving a performance in line with the ambitious expectations of our shareholders and other stakeholders," he added.
The new pay policy takes Soriot's maximum annual bonus for 2021 to 2.5 times his base salary, up from twice his salary, and makes him eligible for long-term share awards worth as much as 6.5 times his salary, up from 5.5 times.
His new package puts him among the best paid European pharmaceutical bosses but still lags Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky's near-$30 million pay plan which was approved by shareholders last month, also after some opposition.
Soriot, who has been in charge of AstraZeneca since 2012, told The Times in a 2018 interview that he found it annoying to be the lowest-paid CEO in the industry. His package has since jumped almost 50% from its level in 2017.
Soriot's total pay package for 2020 of 15.4 million pounds ($21.7 million) was roughly unchanged from 2019. Most of that comprised bonuses and long-term share awards on top of a base salary of 1.3 million pounds.
Shareholder advisory groups ISS, Glass Lewis and PIRC all recommended that investors vote against Soriot's pay increase.
AstraZeneca recognised remuneration was "a sensitive matter" during the pandemic but noted its contributions to tackling the crisis and the scale and scope of what Soriot and chief financial officer Marc Dunoyer were being asked to deliver.
The company has pledged not to make any profit from its COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic and also not from low incom countries thereafter.
"The Board considered it appropriate to take another step to address their market pay positioning in order to retain and incentivise them; and enable succession planning," it said. Más
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