Yesterday the Mail on Sunday he reported that two of the heaviest investors in the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant, Aviva Investors and Standard Life Aberdeen, consider pay and bonuses “excessive”. Tomorrow, on the board, they will therefore get in the way. And they would be convincing others to do the same, because they fear for the reputation of the company that offered the Oxford vaccine around the world as a “non-profit” but which was then accused by the European Union of not respecting the commitments made in the delivery of vaccines. Other consulting groups such as Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis, and Pirc would have recommended all of their clients to decline Soriot’s pay raise.
Not only. As the Times of London, the influential Investment Association, a platform of 250 British asset managers who manage assets and investments for a total of £ 8.5 trillion, has even launched an “orange” alert on the Soriot case, which in their code stands for an important issue that investment fund managers need to carefully consider.
Also because, due to Covid, times have changed. In the City, since the start of the pandemic, executive compensation is down by 20% and more than half of the CEOs of Ftse100 companies will have salaries frozen in 2021, for what is considered a “beau geste” towards shareholders , employees and workers. So why, in their view, should Soriot even receive a substantial increase? In short, it will be a battle tomorrow in the usual annual meeting of AstraZeneca investors and shareholders. And it is certainly not the first time this has happened with the 61-year-old French manager.
Already last year Soriot earned 15.4 million pounds (almost 18 million euros), of which 13 in bonuses. But tomorrow’s summit could decide to fatten its pay slip by at least another 2.3 million pounds, for what, at least on the bonus issue, will be a binding vote. But in the City there are also those who agree, such as Samuel Johar, president of Buchanan Harvey, who al Times he said: “I think eventually the shareholders will approve Pascal’s pay increase. He’s worth it all.”
Indeed, after strong results at Roche, Soriot has been highly regarded at AstraZeneca for how he has re-evaluated the company in recent years. In fact, since 2012 it has turned the multinational upside down like a sock: job cuts, “reshuffle” of offices, focus on a few medical-scientific research fields such as oncology, targeted acquisitions and the “five R” rule (from English right) to apply to every potential launch of a new product: right goals, right fabric, right patient, right commercial impact, right drug safety. The results, as the site recalls Pharmaphorum, they agree.
In 2014, Soriot almost became a hero of the City when he turned down Pfizer’s merger offer with an offer from the Americans for £ 55 a share. A value that today, confirming Soriot’s right decision, rose to 77.35 pounds. Furthermore, AstraZeneca doubled its net profit in the first quarter of 2021, bringing it to 275 million dollars (226 million euros), thanks to the sales of the Oxford Coronavirus vaccine, which in Europe amounted to 224 million dollars. on emerging markets for 43 million and 8 million in the rest of the world (profits will be re-distributed because the vaccine is a non-profit). AstraZeneca’s total revenue, on the other hand, increased 11% to $ 7.32 billion.
“We expect the impact of Covid to accelerate the company’s performance in the second half of 2021,” Soriot commented two weeks ago. Which, however, sparked a clash with the EU after the considerable delays in delivering the doses, the accusations of having “resold the same doses several times” to various buyers and a recent interview with Republic in which he declared that “Boris Johnson’s UK had priority” in the production and delivery of vaccines. Now Europe has taken the company to court and announced over the weekend that it will not renew its existing contract with AstraZeneca.
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