A growing number of US companies — including two backed by British entrepreneur Richard Branson — are expected to face fire from investors in the coming months over a once-obscure pay practice that has let them reward executives without consulting shareholders.
Thanks to the explosion of blank-cheque companies that started in 2020, pay provisions allowing businesses to issue new shares year-after-year without going to investors for approval have become increasingly common.
Companies like these “evergreen” provisions because they can continue to reward executives with stock after their share prices have plummeted. But institutional investors detest the provisions that dilute holdings without them having a say.