Bosses set for stormy meetings

THE blue-chip annual meetings season erupts in earnest this week as a raft of top boards face a cacophony of private investors taking them to task on everything from executive pay to corporate strategy - not to mention the quality of shareholder giveaway goody bags.

From Bishopsgate in the City, where ITV shareholders were today set to ask just why ex-Carlton chief Michael Green was worth his £15m golden goodbye, to the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre in Westminster, and at several points in between, chairmen and chief executives will be earning their money attempting elegantly to fend off tricky investor queries.

Executive largesse is likely to be on the agenda on Thursday at loss-making Reuters where chief executive Tom Glocer is in line for a £12m pay packet and where new part-time chairman Niall FitzGerald is to be paid £500,000 a year.

Abbey's bonuses to top executives, including £608,000 to chief executive Luqman Arnold, will come under scrutiny on the same day.

Corus has already set itself up for a head-to-head with its unwelcome 16% shareholder Alisher Usmanov at its Thursday annual meeting after the steel giant's dismissal of the Russian oligarch's demand for representation on the board.

Martin Broughton, chairman of global cigarettes purveyor BAT, signs off on Wednesday after three decades at the business. He will then take up the equivalent post at British Airways. Broughton can be expected, as usual, to have a go at politically correct corporate governance practices, while politically motivated small shareholders are likely to question the company's exposure to markets such as Myanmar, the repressed former Burma, as well as query Tory grandee Ken Clarke's contribution as the group's £126,000-a-year deputy chairman.

The focus at Associated British Ports on the same day is likely to be on its plans for a giant expansion of its interests in Southampton.

Even Government bodies such as the Environment Agency as well as green campaigners such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds are opposed to plans for a £600m container terminal at nearby Dibden Bay. Local residents are already preparing to file for a judicial review if ABP gets the go-ahead from the Transport Department.