Shareholders show anger at Petrofac pay proposals

Oil services firm Petrofac yesterday became the latest listed company to feel the heat from shareholders, as one in five voted against a long-term incentive plan for top executives.

Nearly 52 million votes were cast against the firm’s “value creation plan” to grant share options to up to 15 of the most senior executives which would vest depending on 2015 profits and other measures.

Small investors’ lobby group Pirc had urged shareholders to oppose the plan, saying it was difficult to asses how challenging the performance targets were, but the motion was carried with just over 200 million votes in favour.

Pirc had also recommended shareholders oppose the remuneration report and refuse to receive the annual report after the company hired a private jet for directors from a company in which chief executive Ayman Asfari has an interest. However, the motions were carried by large majorities.

The firm, which has a large operational base in Aberdeen, said in a statement ahead of the meeting that it was confident of delivering profit growth of at least 15 per cent in 2012 as major projects in Abu Dhabi, Algeria and Turkmenistan progressed.

Asfari said: “We have started the year well and are making good operational progress across our portfolio of projects. We remain on course to achieve our medium-term target of more than doubling our recurring 2010 group earnings by 2015.”

Petrofac, which designs and builds oil and gas infrastructure and also invests with producers in oil fields, said its backlog of orders stood at $9.6 billion (£6bn) at the end of April, down from $10.8bn at the end of last year.

It won a Gazprom project worth $330 million in Iraq in February and said it sees a strong pipeline of bidding projects in the Middle East, North Africa and the former Soviet Union.