Shareholders have scolded Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe over his bumper £3.9 million pay deal, in the retailer's first fraught general meeting since the collapse of its merger with Asda.

The failed merger was described as a "complete fiasco" by frustrated shareholders who have seen the supermarket group's share price fall by 38% in the last 12 months.

Despite facing ire from some shareholders over the pay deal, proxy votes showed that the firm's remuneration policy was backed with more than 90% of shareholder support.

Sainsbury's board of directors handed the chief executive, who has led the firm since 2014, the £3.9 million annual pay packet, up £251,000 on the previous year, despite its shares hitting an almost-30 year low.

READ MORE: Sainsbury’s board take sales drop to shareholders at today’s AGM

One angered investor, John Farmer, lambasted Sainsbury's "useless" bosses for receiving large pay packets despite the merger failure, calling for a "resumption of competence".

The meeting took place just months after the competition watchdog, the CMA, blocked Sainsbury's from joining forces with fellow Big Four supermarket Asda.

Another shareholder called on new chairman Martin Scicluna to axe Mr Coupe, for delivering a "blunderingly poor performance".

Mr Scicluna, who joined Sainsbury's earlier this year, said he is not shopping around for a new chief executive officer, describing Mr Coupe as a leader with "great values and great integrity".

The retailer saw like-for-like sales decline by 1.6% in the 16 weeks to June 29, as its decline accelerated from 0.9% in the previous quarter.

READ MORE: Mike Ashley loses second key Sports Direct ally in a week

Total retail sales excluding fuel fell by 1.2% during the period, as the company said it was impacted by a "tough retail environment".

The directors of high street entertainment retailer Game Digital have pledged to sell their holdings in the business to Mike Ashley's Sports Direct, as they urged shareholders to accept a £52 million takeover offer.

Following last month's endorsement of the 30p-a-share offer, Game has now published a full response and reiterated its call for shareholders to accept the offer.

Any directors who have shares in the company will sell. The bid will close on July 11, with payment to shareholders due later this month.

Game shares were trading flat at 29.9p at midday on Thursday.

FTSE 250 firm Energean has agreed a $750 million (£596.4m) deal to buy the oil and gas business of Edison, which will be partly funded by the placing of new shares.

The merger will create one of the largest independent exploration and production businesses on the London Stock Exchange.

Energean said it would fund the acquisition with a $265m (£210.76m) equity placing and a 600 million dollar (£477.19m) loan.

Shares in Energean jumped more than 11% on the news.