Andrew Moss quits Aviva as shareholder pay revolt claims latest victim

AVIVA’s chief executive Andrew Moss quit on Tuesday, the third big corporate boss to fall on their sword after an upsurge of recent shareholder anger around remuneration and under-performance.

Analysts said the writing had been on the wall for the insurance giant’s boss following a stormy annual meeting last week when 54 per cent of investors refused to back the remuneration report.

Some 10 per cent of shareholders also voted against Moss’s re-election as chief executive. The barrage of criticism of a deal that would have seen his total pay go through the £1 million barrier is believed to have convinced him he had lost investor confidence.

Moss steps down as chief executive with immediate effect, while Sly Bailey of Trinity Mirror is leaving at the end of the year following a shareholder revolt against her pay. David Brennan, chief executive of AstraZeneca, exits on 1 June amid discontent at the drugs giant’s poor performance.

Joy Ferneyhough, insurance analyst at broker Espirito Santo, said: “He [Moss] has finally fallen on his sword after increasing pressure in recent weeks from shareholders and the media over pay and share price performance. It has been clear for a number of years that there has remained a section of shareholders unhappy with Moss’s position.”

Scot John McFarlane, due to take over as non-executive chairman of Aviva in July, will temporarily become executive deputy chairman, and executive chairman from July, until a search for a permanent replacement for Moss is over.

Andy Haste, credited with masterminding the turnaround of rival insurer RSA, and Igal Mayer, recently ousted as head of Aviva’s European business in Moss’s latest managerial shake‑up nearly three weeks ago, were said by analysts yesterday to be potential candidates for the top job. Trevor Matthews, the former head of Edinburgh-based Standard Life’s UK business who joined Aviva in the same position last December after a stint with Friends Provident, is seen as the internal frontrunner in the succession battle. Matthews was put in charge of Aviva’s developed markets business in the recent shake-up.

Lord Sharman, Aviva’s outgoing chairman, said: “We should acknowledge the progress that has been achieved under Andrew Moss’s leadership.

“Through the global financial crisis, he led the consolidation of our international presence and the integration of 40 brands into the very powerful single Aviva brand.”

However, shareholders in the company, which in Scotland employs about 2,500 in mainly general insurance operations in Bishopbriggs and Perth, have attacked falling dividends under Moss and Sharman’s stewardship since 2007.

The share price has also tumbled 35 per cent in the past year. Aviva’s shares last night closed virtually unchanged, up 0.6p at 302.9p.

The company revealed that Moss will leave with a “golden goodbye” of about £1.7m, believed to include one year’s basic salary of about £906,000, and a payment of £300,000 “in full and final settlement” of all claims he might have had to bonuses under his contract. There will also be a payment of £209,000 related to pension entitlements, and sums for “legal and outplacement” expenses.