Shareholders vote against Paysafe group exec remuneration proposal

The Isle of Man-based payment processor Paysafe Group plc may have turned in some impressive results this week, but its annual general meeting produced some unpleasant surprises for the directors when 52 percent of shareholders voted against the group’s executive payment scheme.

It’s the third occasion in as many weeks that shareholders of listed UK companies have protested at what they regard to be overly generous pay packages for senior executives…the other two protests were at Ladbrokes and Paddy Power-Betfair (see previous reports).

Paysafe investors are reportedly especially concerned about chief executive Joel Leonoff’s package, which includes incentives that have soared 35 percent to GBP 6.7 million for 2015.

Leonoff could argue that he engineered the Euro 1.1 billion acquisition of Skrill, and led the merged company to a FTSE 250 listing during that period.

Shareholders are also perturbed by a one-off GBP 4.1 million payment that Leonoff received in 2014 as part of an incentive plan.

Management reaction at Paysafe has been fairly muted so far, commenting that it is ‘disappointed’ by the shareholder revolt, and vowing to continue a dialogue with investors “on pay and wider governance matters in 2016”.

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