CAIRN Energy has awarded shares worth £6 million to members of its senior management team under a long-term incentive plan, (LTIP) four weeks after it suffered a shareholder revolt on executive pay.
The Edinburgh-based oil and gas firm said seven members of the team, led by chief executive Simon Thomson, were awarded a total of 2,146,568 shares yesterday. They will receive these in three years, subject to conditions.
Mr Thomson, who succeeded Sir Bill Gammell as chief executive last July, has been awarded 513,335 shares. These would be worth £1.4m at the closing price of 280p for Cairn shares yesterday.
Deputy chief executive Mike Watts received 469,691 shares worth £1.3m.
Jann Brown, finance director, was allotted 432,282 shares worth £1.2m.
Following the latest awards, the seven executives are in line to receive a total of 6.6 million shares, worth £18.6m, under Cairn's 2009 LTIP, subject to conditions.
Last month, Cairn suffered a 67% vote against its directors' remuneration report at its annual meeting, which signalled significant concern among investors about its executive pay policies.
In January, the company scrapped plans to pay a big one-off bonus to Sir Bill after these were opposed by some shareholders.
Prior to the meeting, Manifest said: "Total remuneration is considered to be positioned above expectations given the company's size and scale, its sector and its performance."
The advisory group expressed concern about the level of awards made under the LTIP relative to performance last year, when Cairn sold the bulk of its successful Indian business for $5.4bn after tax.
Sir Bill told the meeting that Cairn recognised the strength of views expressed in the vote and would maintain an "open and honest dialogue" about pay with shareholders.
Asked yesterday if it was appropriate to make the LTIP awards following the vote, a spokesman for Cairn said: "This is a standard management incentive which is based on performance. The recipients do not receive the shares unless the company performance criteria have been met."
The conditions concern the total shareholder return generated by Cairn relative to its peer group.
On Wednesday, Cairn announced a recommended £414m bid for North Sea- focused Nautical Petroleum. This was Cairn's second North Sea acquisition in quick succession.
Andrew McGeary, analyst at Northland Capital Partners, said speculation was rife that other North Sea companies could be taken over. He said several firms on the UK Continental Shelf "may present interesting value propositions".
Mr McGeary said these included Lochard Energy and Serica Energy. He added: "Xcite Energy and Valiant Petroleum both have a good stable of UKCS assets and are trading at or around two-year lows."
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