Shareholders of UK supermarket group J Sainsbury have voted to approve a controversial remuneration report, after the company secured the backing of the Sainsbury family, which owns 35% of the shares.

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Sainsbury’s said 71.4% of shareholders voted in favour of approving the report, which included a controversial bonus for former chairman Peter Davis, while 28.6% voted against the report.


In a bid to avoid a shareholder revolt over the report, Sainsbury announced last week that it no longer backed the controversial bonus for Davis, but said the award would still have to be part of the report put to shareholders at the AGM on 12 July following advice from the company’s legal team. Sainsbury said it still recommended the report but that it would not implement these recommendations in relation to Davis’ bonus.


The company added that such matters have been referred to the respective legal representatives of both parties as part of Davis’ termination arrangements


Shareholders had threatened to vote against the report in protest at the proposal to award Davis 86% of the possible share bonus allowed despite a poor performance by the company, which has been losing market share.

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