Anglo American’s merger bonus was a pay wheeze too far

S hareholder rebellions over executive pay aren’t what they used to be. In the past 18 months, bumper incentive arrangements for the bosses have been approved at AstraZeneca , the London Stock Exchange Group and Smith & Nephew . All those companies have managed to argue successfully that, since the bulk of their revenues are made on the other side of the Atlantic, the executives should be paid like Americans.

Perhaps it was such favourable votes (for the executives) that persuaded the remuneration committee of FTSE 100 miner Anglo American that its cheeky “resolution 2” within the proposed $50bn all-share merger with the Canadian group Teck Resources wouldn’t cause a fuss.

This resolution would have created, in effect, a £8.5m bonus at the current share price for the chief execu