ABERDEEN Asset Management was hit by another shareholder rebellion on pay as it provided a mixed update on trading that showed clients have been withdrawing unexpectedly large amounts of funds.
Some 15.7% of shares were voted against the company's remuneration report at its annual investor meeting.
This is down from the 29% who rebelled last year, but still compares to typical opposition of 5.6% to a listed company's pay report, according to data from corporate governance advisor PIRC.
When deliberate abstentions are taken into account, the scale of the rebellion rises to almost one in five investors, some 19.1% of shares cast.
In the year to September 30, chief executive Martin Gilbert saw his pay rise 20% to £4.5m, including a £4 million bonus. His Asian chief Hugh Young picked up £4.2m.
An Aberdeen spokesman said: "Shareholders voted more than five to one in favour of the remuneration resolution following extensive consultation over the past year."
The rebellion comes at a time of heightened focus on executive pay with Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday warning that "the bonus culture – particularly in the City – has got out of control".
Aberdeen's shares fell 3.75p, or 2%, to 26p in the course of the day after it revealed clients withdrew a net £2.8 billion from Aberdeen's funds in the last three months of 2011, although revenues continued to improve as the balance of funds shifted further towards high-margin areas.
However, the outflow was offset by market and foreign exchange movements, taking assets under management up from £169.9bn to £173.9bn during the period.
Much of the damage was done by the withdrawal of a single mandate from its fixed income team which saw a total of £2.1bn of outflows, an acceleration from £1.2bn in the previous quarter.
Finance director Bill Rattray said: "The nature of these things is that clients might decide to move some money at pretty short notice and it is not something that you can really foresee. We would like to see it is a bit of a one-off but I cannot, hand on heart, say that it is."
Mr Rattray said flows had generally been in line with previous quarters. Aberdeen is continuing to see outflows from alternative investment mandates, such as funds of hedge funds. But its equities business is expanding, recording a net inflow of £932m for the period, up from £865m for the same period last year.
Mr Gilbert said Aberdeen retains momentum.
"New business flows remain focused on our higher margin pooled funds with outflows largely limited to lower margin strategies. Revenues continue to improve steadily while costs remain under control.
"Our investment performance is robust in the face of ongoing macroeconomic instability."
Investors were cheered by Aberdeen's report of a £10m boost to annual income by inflows into higher margin business, while many of the outflows were from low margin business. It is also taking an extra £5m in income from the acquisition of two management contracts for US closed end funds investing in Asian equities.
Aberdeen has been putting a lot of work into attracting business on the other side of the Atlantic.
Haley Tam of Citigroup said Aberdeen "continues to win assets under management where it counts".
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