ANZ hit with second ‘strike’ as shareholders dissent over pay report
Shareholders may call for another vote on whether to remove the entire board
ANZ Group said on Thursday its new CEO will forgo his short-term bonus this year after a significant minority of shareholders opposed the Australian lender’s executive pay report at its 2025 annual general meeting.
Shareholders voted 32.36 per cent against the report, well above the 25 per cent threshold required to block the resolution, according to proxy votes released on Thursday.
ANZ Chairman Paul O’Sullivan said at the shareholder meet that CEO Nuno Matos has proposed to not receive his short-term variable remuneration this year, “even though contributing issues pre-dated his arrival.”
ANZ, Australia’s No.4 bank, has now received a second “strike”, or a “no” vote, on its remuneration report, after a first strike last year. The action could now trigger a call for a shareholder vote on whether to remove the entire board.
“It is worth noting that while a significant minority of shareholders have voted against the remuneration report, including many who told us we didn’t go far enough, we are currently facing litigation on this matter,” O’Sullivan added.
Earlier this month, influential proxy advisers CGI Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services urged investors to vote against the lender’s executive pay report, arguing executive pay cuts should have been tougher given its string of recent scandals.
Further consequences can be expected for ANZ’s board given its string of compliance failures, said Jessica Amir, a market strategist at trading platform moomoo.
However, “given how much they control of the mortgage market and given their size in the Aussie share market index, you might expect history to rhyme and for their shares to eventually recover.”
Shares were volatile in the first few minutes of trading, before stabilising to trade 0.1 per cent higher at A$36.13, as of 0008 GMT. REUTERS
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