High street retail giant Dixons Carphone suffered a stinging shareholder revolt over pay after almost a quarter of investors rebelled at the company's annual general meeting.
Despite the rebellion, shareholders in the company passed pay proposals which handed chief executive Alex Baldock shares worth £2.3 million as part of a long-term incentive plan.
The payout, which handed the boss almost 1.2 million shares, represented a significant rise on the previous year, when he was given 783,000 shares by the board.
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The Carphone Warehouse owner saw 23.4% of shareholders vote against its directors' remuneration report, although it was ultimately passed alongside all other 21 resolutions.
Influential advisory group Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) had recommended that people vote against the pay deal after a continued slump in the retailer's share value.
Mr Baldock was handed an £850,000 annual salary for the financial year to April, while chief financial officer, Jonny Mason received a £470,000 salary.
Dixons Carphone said the chief executive and CFO both voluntarily deferred their cash bonus for the year.
Mr Baldock is currently leading the company through a five-year transformation plan after it slid to a £259 million pre-tax loss for the year to April.
Prior to the annual general meeting, the company said sales in its loss-making mobile business continued to plummet as it was hit by UK consumers moving away from longer phone contracts.
The retailer blamed a "challenging mobile market" as it posted a 10% slump in like-for-like sales for its UK & Ireland mobile division.
Turnaround specialist Melrose has seen shares jump higher after it unveiled narrowed losses thanks to a doubling of revenues led by its £8 billion takeover of GKN.
The group remained firmly in the red, with pre-tax losses of £128 million for six months to June 30, but this marked an improvement on the £372 million loss seen a year ago.
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Shares rose 6% as Melrose chairman Justin Dowley said the results showed the "initial fruits" of its first turnaround stage for GKN - the engineering giant it bought in March last year after a bitter and protracted battle punctuated by Government interventions.
Investors were also cheered by a 10% rise in the interim dividend payout, to 1.7p a share.
Melrose said its interim revenues jumped to £5.7 billion from £2.8 billion a year earlier and, on an underlying basis, pre-tax profits jumped 76% to £429 million.
Aerospace revenues surged to £1.9 billion from £713 million and automotive turnover soared to £2.2 billion from £896 million, while powder metallurgy revenues rose to £574 million from £254 million.
Boden's chief executive is to leave the company at the end of 2019 after three years in the role.
Jill Easterbrook, who previously headed Tesco's clothing offering, told the board she would like to step down and build her portfolio of non-executive directorships at other companies.
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She is a non-executive director at AutoTrader, where she chairs the remuneration committee.
She will have served three years in charge of the clothing and lifestyle favourite by the time she departs.
Founder Johnnie Boden said: "Jill has contributed a huge amount to Boden. She has helped us to grow up. She has been instrumental in building Boden for the future and driving our ambition as an international, digital first, multi-channel business."
Ms Easterbrook will stay until the end of 2019 to assist with a smooth transition, while finance boss Paul O'Leary will become chief operating officer.
The announcement came as Boden released its results for 2018 and warned that the tough retail environment is likely to impact profits this year.
Sales were up 10% in the year to December 31 at £383 million.
Pre-tax profit rose to £30 million, driven by a good performance in the US where sales surged more than 850%.
Ms Easterbrook said the business has "felt the impact of ongoing consumer uncertainty in the current financial year".
"This macro environment and our continued investment is likely to have a negative impact on profitability this year," she said.
"However, we are continuing to grow and believe that we have the foundations in place to build on our strong brand."
Sales in the first half of 2019 rose 4%, but higher levels of discounting held back performance in the US.
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