Anglo shareholders show unease at CEO pay deal

By Clara Denina and Eric Onstad

LONDON (Reuters) - Anglo American (AAL.L) will launch a fresh review of executive pay after a significant number of shareholders voted against Chief Executive Mark Cutifani's 3.4 million-pound pay deal for 2015, partial voting results showed on Thursday.

Results from shareholders who had submitted votes ahead of the annual general meeting showed 41.64 percent opposed to the company's remuneration report and 58.36 percent in favour.

Full voting results are due to be released on Friday, the company said.

Last year, the Anglo pay report was approved by 94 percent of shareholders.

The vote over pay at Anglo American follows hot on the heels of a revolt at oil major BP (BP.L), where 59.1 percent of investors voted against CEO Bob Dudley's $19.6 million remuneration package on April 14.

Anglo posted steep losses last year after commodity prices slumped and has sought to offset poor trading conditions with a restructuring plan, cutting head office costs by half and closing 20 mines since 2013.

"You can be assured that we are listening to what shareholders say," Anglo's chairman, John Parker, told the meeting, adding that a fresh review of pay would be launched.

"Every three years we will be taking a fresh look at the policy and over the during the 12 months we will hold fresh consultations with shareholders followed by a vote at next year's meeting," he told the AGM.

One institutional shareholder which voted against the pay report was Hermes Investment Management.

"We have not supported the remuneration report this year as we are concerned by the unusually high number of shares issued to directors under its long-term incentive plan," Hermes Director Bruce Duguid said in a statement.

A leading investor advisory firm last week urged shareholders to reject the Anglo remuneration report, saying it was too generous in view of the collapse in the company's share price.

A similar call for action was made by private shareholders support group ShareSoc.

The 75 percent fall in the share price last year made Anglo the worst performing stock in the FTSE 100 index .

Cutifani's total pay last year was 3.4 million pounds, down from 3.7 million in 2014. His basic salary of 1.26 million pounds was frozen for 2016.

The maximum bonus opportunity for each of the directors, including Cutifani, is 210 percent of their base salary.

"When times are good the benefits should be shared between employees and shareholders, when times are hard it should be the other way around ... bonuses can't keep flowing," retail shareholder Phil Clarke told Reuters at the AGM.

A spokesman for Anglo American previously said in an emailed statement to Reuters that the company's policy resulted in the CEO's remuneration "decreasing substantially" last year.

"His bonus was reduced by 40 percent, his variable pay was one fifth of the maximum achievable and his salary frozen, as it was for all our management team," the spokesman said.

($1 = 0.6979 pounds)

(Reporting by Clara Denina and Eric Onstad; Editing by Greg Mahlich)