Renault has suffered a shareholder rebellion over its chief executive’s pay, after the French government and independent investors joined forces to express their opposition to excessive rewards, reports The Financial Times.
About 54 per cent of investors in the carmaker on Friday voted against Carlos Ghosn’s annual €7.3m package in a non-binding vote at the carmaker’s annual meeting in Paris.
It is the first shareholder vote at Renault since the French state raised its stake to almost 20 per cent, and comes amid worries across the company about the extent of government interference.
However, a group of other shareholders voted in line with the government, which regularly opposes pay rises for executives, said people familiar with the investor register.
One shareholder, speaking in the packed hall on the outskirts of Paris, told Mr Ghosn that while he had “a lot of great qualities” on the issue of pay he was “not exemplary” and his package was “not acceptable”.
Mr Ghosn sprang to his own defence, saying: “I am not the person who fixes my salary. You delegate power to a board of directors who fix my salary. You should trust your board of directors.”
He added: “The most important thing today is that Renault is growing.”
Nissan, which is in a global alliance with Renault, under which they share research and manufacturing, holds 15 per cent the French carmaker’s shares but has no voting rights under a deal reached last year.