agency advises shareholders to vote against Tavares’ salary

In a note revealed this Saturday by The world and consulted by AFP, the American investor advisory agency Glass Lewis recommended that Stellantis shareholders vote “against” the remuneration of the CEO of the automotive group, Carlos Tavares. She “expresses serious reservations regarding the recommendation made to shareholders to support the report on remuneration at this stage”, on the occasion of the general meeting of shareholders of the group convened on April 16. “We believe significant increases in target CEO compensation amid mass layoffs may result in a disparity between executive compensation and stakeholder experience [clients, fournisseurs, actionnaires, employés, banques, NDLR] », Underlines the agency.

Carlos Tavares’ remuneration could ultimately reach 36.5 million euros for 2023 thanks to a performance bonus of 10 million euros for the “transformation” of the group created in 2021, according to the financial report of the business. A bonus that the agency considers insufficiently justified: “We are generally skeptical of any type of additional bonus rewarding individuals for actions that we consider intrinsic to the functions of a manager. »

Such compensation “may raise concerns on the part of shareholders”, also notes the agency, pointing out that Stellantis “has started to lay off thousands of additional employees in Detroit, Toledo and Ohio, in the United States “. “As a result, we do not believe that the company’s remuneration report merits shareholder support at this stage,” the agency concludes, recommending voting “against”, as it did for the company’s remuneration. year 2022.

Two other agencies mention “excessive” salary

This analysis joins that of two other large consulting agencies cited in the article from World, Proxinvest and ISS. The latter “estimates the emoluments of the general director of the automobile group at 42 million euros for 2023 […] An amount that she considers “excessive” compared to that of her peers,” writes the daily.

Ranking among the highest paid bosses in the CAC 40, Carlos Tavares attracted the wrath of Emmanuel Macron in 2022, who judged the “astronomical” amount of his compensation, validated by shareholders in 2023, to be “shocking and excessive”. in an advisory vote for a amount of up to 23.5 million euros. The fourth largest automobile group in the world, Stellantis (Peugeot, Fiat and Dodge brands) recorded a new record profit of 18.6 billion euros last yearup 11% compared to 2022.