Directors' pay likely to be passed at annual general meeting despite lobby group recommendation to vote no

Bellway shareholders are set to approve the housebuilder鈥檚 proposals for directors' pay at its annual general meeting on Friday.

The approval will come despite a recommendation from shareholder lobby group PIRC that shareholders vote against the proposal on the grounds the criteria for awarding the payments were too narrow.

A Bellway spokesman said: 鈥淔rom the votes we have had in already, it is clear the recommendations will be passed resoundingly.鈥�

This year鈥檚 row follows the payment of 拢240,099 in bonuses and comes after a shareholder revolt last year over 2008 bonus payments.

Last year鈥檚 row was sparked when some shareholders became angry that performance targets had been changed retrospectively to enable the payment of bonuses.

In its annual report this year, Bellway said: 鈥淭he committee has been very mindful of these concerns and undertook extensive consultations with institutional shareholders on future bonus arrangements in the spring of this year.鈥�

As a result of the talks, Bellway reduced the maximum bonus figure from 120% to 100% of salary and based payments on fixed targets for operating profit (excluding writedowns), which accounts for 40% of the bonus. The rest will be based on cash generation targets (40%) and personal performance (20%), which will be evaluated by the remuneration committee.

This year John Watson, the chief executive, received a bonus of 拢104,391 on top of his salary of 拢515,000. The total, including pension, of 拢799,646 was down 3% on last year's figure of 拢824,917, which included a 拢275,000 bonus.

The payments are in contrast to Persimmon, Barratt and Redrow, none of which paid top bosses performance bonuses last year.

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