BP Resolves Pay Dispute After Cutting CEO Dudley's Compensation

(Bloomberg) -- BP Plc shareholders approved the company’s executive-pay policy after the U.K. oil producer agreed to cut the maximum amount its boss can earn by as much as $3.7 million over the next three years.

The policy was backed by 97.3 percent of shareholders, according to an emailed statement following the company’s annual general meeting in London on Wednesday. Almost the same proportion of investors approved executive pay for last year.

In proposals announced last month, BP said Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley would earn no more than five times his basic salary as part of a long-term incentive plan, compared with seven times under the previous policy. That would cut his maximum pay, excluding pensions, to $15.3 million from $19 million. The change followed a shareholder revolt last year over Dudley’s 20 percent pay increase after BP reported a record net loss in 2015.

“BP’s remuneration committee has made the right decision to significantly reduce the total pay that Mr. Dudley will be awarded going forward,” Ashley Hamilton Claxton, corporate governance manager at Royal London Asset Management, said earlier Wednesday in an emailed statement. Royal London says it holds 145 million shares in BP, or a 0.73 percent stake.

Dudley’s total pay in 2016 dropped 40 percent from the previous year, according to BP’s annual report.

The result from Wednesday’s AGM isn’t final as some votes remain to be counted.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rakteem Katakey in London at rkatakey@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Amanda Jordan, Dylan Griffiths