Hiscox shareholders revolt over pay policy

Hiscox suffered the biggest rebellion over boardroom pay of any FTSE 350 company this year after 42% of shareholders rejected its remuneration policy.

Insiders told the Financial Times that shareholders had been concerned about how the company planned to pay newly hired executives.

The remuneration committee said in a statement: “Our intention will always be to put externally hired executive directors on a remuneration package that is consistent with our overall remuneration approach.

“Our intention is to provide a short-term transition into the Hiscox pay policy and this would not be achieved if we agreed initial pay structures and levels that were out of line with that policy.”

Shareholders also expressed concern at the proportion of pay that was based on short-term incentives.

Chief executive Bronek Masojada was paid a total of £2.3m, of which £1.1m was a bonus and £667,246 came from long-term incentive rewards.

Hiscox said: “Our remuneration policy is largely unchanged from last year. We received 97% support for our remuneration report, which is how that policy is applied in practice.”