By Jon Rees
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So will Sir Martin Sorrell thumb his nose at his shareholders, or will they give him a tap to make his eyes water?
On Wednesday the chief executive of the world’s biggest advertising firm will see his potential £29million pay packet put to the test of shareholder approval at the company’s annual meeting.
That’s in Dublin, by the way, because though WPP is listed on the London stock market, Sorrell moved it to Ireland to take advantage of the more relaxed approach to corporate taxation there.
WPP boss: Martin Sorrell seems singularly bull-headed in his determination to trouser the cash
For a man whose business is persuasion, Sorrell seems singularly bull-headed in his determination to trouser the cash. Shareholders have said he needs a ‘bloody nose’ and on Wednesday he might just get one.
As one of the few chief executives of a Footsie company with finely tuned political antennae, it is odd he should find himself so out of step on this.
If the shareholder revolt materialises, chairman Philip Lader, a former US ambassador to Britain, is likely to pour diplomatic oil on troubled waters.
‘While directors are expected to exercise their best judgment, they are expected to be responsive to shareholders,’ Lader told Financial Mail.
Which is ambassador-speak for ‘we get the message’.
WPP is worth £9.6 billion, it reported profits of more than £1 billion last year and has outperformed the FTSE 100 over the past five years. Near the other end of the stock market Trinity Mirror would love to have WPP’s problems.
Its value has reached a new low of £62million â€" down from £1.1billion in 2003, when outgoing boss Sly Bailey joined. That didn’t stop her raking in £1million in pay and bonuses during her time in charge.
Trinity Mirror’s shares have fallen after a brief bounce when Bailey sacked the editors of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror 11 days ago and merged the two titles into a seven-day operation.
There were rumours that the ousted editors, Richard Wallace and Tina Weaver, had been planning a management buyout. But investment banking sources suggest desperate shareholders might have to wait a while for an offer.
A senior banking source said: ‘Trinity Mirror has pathetically low equity value, has not yet properly dealt with its pension problem and has considerable debts.
‘Private equity firms would not go near it, unless they were allowed to do thorough due diligence by the board â€" and the board would never countenance an offer that was not for the entire company.’
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