股东不満银行高管加薪

[2012.05.05] Shareholder activism and the banks 股东不満银行高管加薪  

Shareholder activism and the banks

股东行为主义和银行

A new kind of outrage

一种新的愤怒

Investors kick out against inflated pay packages

投资人对高管膨胀的薪酬怒而说不

May 5th 2012 | NEW YORK | from the print edition 

ADD another group to the list of irritants bothering the bosses of financial firms: shareholders. The long run of ever-expanding compensation for executives is under threat from investors on both sides of the Atlantic.

又有一帮人让金融公司的头头们大伤脑筋，那就是股东。大西洋两岸，一路看涨的高管薪酬正受到投资人的威胁。

Aviva, a British insurer with a downwardly mobile share price, announced on April 30th that its chief executive would forgo a planned pay rise because of shareholder criticism. The head of the compensation committee for Barclays was heckled at the bank’s annual meeting in London on April 27th. Big American banks cleverly scheduled their meetings away from the clamouring mobs of Wall Street—Citigroup went as far as Dallas and declined to provide a webcast. But its efforts could not muffle the bang made by a non-binding shareholder vote against a ludicrous compensation scheme for Vikram Pandit, its chief executive.

英国保险公司英杰华股价不断下滑，由于受到股东批评，4月30日他们宣布放弃给首席执行官加薪的计划。巴克利银行薪酬委员会主任在4月27日的伦敦年会上遭到指责。美国几家大银行十分精明地将股东年会日期订在离华尔街抗议活动较远一些的日子，花旗将会议拉到了达拉斯，并拒绝提供网络广播。但其良苦用心没能遮盖住投资者反对荒唐地为公司CEO维克拉姆?潘迪特加酬的呼声，尽管投资者的反对没有法律约束力。

Citi is not alone. FirstMerit of Ohio also lost a shareholder vote in April, having granted its chief executive a steep rise despite single-digit returns on equity and a depressed share price. Three other large American financial firms received less than 65% approval on pay-related votes, a symbolic if not actionable threshold, according to Semler Brossy, a consultancy that began last year to collect data on these votes.

不仅花旗如此。俄亥俄州的FirstMerit，无视权益回报率不足10%、股价低迷的现实，计划大幅增加CEO薪资，在4月份的一次股东投票中此计划也被否决。按照去年开始搜集表决数据的咨询机构Semler Brossy的说法，美国其他三家大型金融公司在高管薪资问题上的投票支持率均不到65%，这个比率如果不是一个可以诉讼的门槛也是一个具有象征意义的门槛。

There are many more of these dramas to come in the months ahead. UBS, a perennially underperforming Swiss bank, was expected to face shareholder anger over pay at its annual meeting on May 3rd. Capital One will have its annual meeting on May 8th, and a “no” vote is recommended by Glass Lewis, an adviser to institutional investors.

在接下来的几个月，还会有更多这样的戏剧性场面出现。瑞士的瑞银集团一直经营不佳，在5月3日将要举行的股东年会上，高管薪酬问题可能会引起股东的愤怒。第一资本公司的股东年会将于5月8日举行，为几家机构投资者做顾问的格拉斯?莱维斯提议股东投反对票。

The shareholder meeting of Goldman Sachs, on May 24th, is another flashpoint. The advisory firms have yet to weigh in but the bank is facing a highly unconventional challenge from the Sequoia Fund, a rare financial entity with a long-term reputation for good returns and exemplary conduct.

5月24日的高盛股东会又将引起一场声讨，众多咨询公司还未开唱，这家银行就受到来自红杉资本异乎寻常的挑战，红杉资本这家难得的金融公司，因回报率高、操作规范而久负盛名。

Sequoia broke its usual silence last month to urge the ousting of James Johnson, the board member chairing Goldman’s compensation committee. A letter from the fund’s managers noted he “has been at the centre of several egregious corporate-governance debacles”, and cited Mr Johnson’s own management of Fannie Mae and compensation scandals at KB Homes and United Healthcare during periods when he served on their boards. Mr Johnson’s experience has been good enough for Goldman’s shareholders to have elected him to the company’s board since it went public in 1999. The winds are changing.

上个月，红杉资本打破一贯的沉默，力促高盛罢免其薪酬委员会主席詹姆斯?约翰逊。这家基金管理公司的信中这样写道，他应对“几次公司治理惨败负主要责任”，并历数约翰逊本人在房利美的管理经历以及在“KB 房屋”和“联合健康”担任董事期间的薪酬丑闻。1999年公司上市后，约翰逊先生的资历曾是担任公司董事的最好理由，现在风向正在改变。