Under fire Chemring retreats over bosses’ pay rises

Recovering defence firm Chemring on Friday went back to the drawing board on top bosses’ pay following pressure from shareholders.

Investors were due to vote on a new remuneration policy and a revamped incentive plan at a meeting, but Chemring withdrew the proposals from the agenda after “engaging with shareholders”.

Chemring which makes ejector seats for fighter jets, aimed to update its pay packages after finding old policies gave “poor alignment of shareholders’ and management’s interests”.

It lifted directors’ pay by 2.7% and put forward an incentive plan to replace current bonus schemes.

The plan allowed a maximum award of 250% of salary to the chief executive, with the rest on a maximum of 200%, and would pay 30% of awards in cash.

Chemring said it consulted shareholders and received majority support, with its top three investors believed to be on side. However, it decided “the right course of action” was to “consider these plans further”.

Chemring, which had been struggling, said earlier it had a positive start to the year, with order intake of £127.4 million compared with last year’s £88.9 million.