Ted Baker faces investor revolt over proposed exec pay rises

Ted Baker is reportedly facing an investor revolt over plans to increase the salary of its executive team despite the label’s financial woes.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recommended investors to vote down the company’s remuneration policy at its annual meeting next week, The Sunday Times reports. The Advisory group believes the plans to increase executive salaries and bonuses is unjustified.

It comes amid a difficult period for the British luxury label. At the beginning of the year, auditors at Deloitte found that the company overstated the value of its inventory by 58 million pounds, more than double what the label estimated when it first revealed the mistake at the end of last year. The error led to the departure of CEO Lindsay Page in December.

The loss-making company has been looking to cut costs and this month revealed it had completed the sale and leaseback of its London HQ, known as The Ugly Brown Building, to a wholly-owned subsidiary of British Airways Pension Trustees Limited for a cash consideration of 78.75 million pounds.

In June, it raised 105 million pounds in new equity to help mitigate the financial impact of Covid-19. Revenues for the 14 weeks to 2 May fell 36 percent, while for the 12 months to 25 January, the label made a loss before tax of 79.9 million pounds.

Photo credit: Ted Baker media resources