Morrisons' indignation over shareholder rebellion is misplaced | Nils Pratley

If the supermarket wants investors to back its executives' pay, it shouldn't annoy them with a top-up that looks greedy

When 48% of shareholders rebel against a company's remuneration report, most chairmen scuttle into the shadows muttering empty words about seeking further engagement with investors. So Andy Higginson, chairman of Morrisons, deserves some credit for coming out fighting after more than half of investors either voted against the proposal or withheld their vote. Morrisons "fundamentally disagrees" with the assessment by proxy voting agency ISS that executives' new performance targets aren't stretching.

The argument here is slightly technical. Chief executive David Potts is being incentivised to get Morrisons to produce 800m of cash over the next three years. Is that demanding? It's hard to tell, since comparisons are distorted by disposals and one's view of how past working capital improvements should be regarded.

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