Unilever boss Paul Polman was paid 20% less last year than in 2015, taking home €8.4m, according to the group’s latest annual report (The Financial Times). His pay packet fell from the €10.4m in 2015 after a change in targets from long-term incentive schemes.
Kraft’s Unilever failure shows the need for political savvy, with acquirers who do not engage all stakeholders seen as barbarians at the gate, says Michael Skapinker in The Financial Times. Warren Buffett says he does not participate in hostile takeovers, but the recent bid for Unilever by Kraft Heinz was never going to be friendly, he adds. “Anyone with a grasp of Unilever’s culture and the surrounding politics would have understood that this $143bn bid would not only turn hostile; it would, if it had gone ahead, have been brutally acrimonious.”
High street bakery chain Greggs reported an increase in sales and profits for last year but warned of the prospect of rising inflation in the UK economy (The Financial Times). The Times writes that ”Greggs on a roll but the heat is rising”.
Sainsbury’s has been named the best sustainable seafood supermarket in the world in a survey published by the Marine Stewardship Council (The Guardian).
News that retail tycoon Philip Green finally agrees to pay £363m into the BHS pension fund send the papers into a feeding frenzy (The Guardian). “Do not run away with the idea that Sir Philip Green has suddenly been overcome by the spirit of generosity,” Guardian business editor Nils Pratley writes. “In agreeing a £363m settlement to top up the BHS pension schemes, he has probably done enough to keep his knighthood but he has not pushed the boat out.” The response from Westminster was” decidedly tepid”, with the pension hole still not filled, The Financial Times says.
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