This morning’s papers are dominated by news of bonuses paid to the bosses at Britain’s biggest retailers.

Fed-up Morrisons shareholders gave the retailer a bit of a kick at the company’s AGM in Bradford yesterday after the board paid former CEO Dalton Philips a £3m pay packet for being a “good leaver”. More than a third of investors rejected the board’s recommendations for executive remuneration (The Daily Telegraph).

The Financial Times said it was a “powerful protest” from investors over the remuneration paid to Philips, who was ousted in January, to be replaced with former Tesco executive David Potts. At the meeting, which The Grocer attended, chairman Andrew Higginson, said the amount paid to Philips was the legal minimum.

Higginson added that the bonuses earned by directors, including Philips and finance director Trevor Strain, were “deserved” in his opinion (The Guardian). The company had made “very public commitments” on profit, cash generation and dividend payments, which they had met, he said. “Given the turmoil in the market, hitting any of those targets is to management’s credit.”

Despite the pay protest, life president Sir Ken Morrison said he backed Potts and Higginson, and urged shareholders to give them “breathing space” to turn the ailing giant around.

The Daily Mail took a harder view of the meeting, saying the directors were “humiliated” by the 36.56% vote against the pay policy. It also focused on the issue of the Living Wage, which was brought up by a representative of ShareAction at the AGM. The paper said Higginson “faced outrage” last night after he suggested staff in his stores did not need to be paid the Living Wage because they have benefits such as in-store discount cards (The Daily Mail).

The meeting came on the same day Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer issued details of top pay packets. M&S came under fire as four executives received packages worth more than £1m. CEO Marc Bolland’s package increased from £1.6m to £2.1m as he received a bonus of £596,000 for the year in which he delivered the retailer’s first profits rise in four years. He was also awarded shares worth £2.4m, taking his total remuneration to £4.5m (The Daily Telegraph) (The Guardian) (The Financial Times).

The Telegraph carries a report claiming Tesco is a step closer to a $6bn South Korean sell-off as the troubled supermarket hires HSBC to explore options for Asian operations.

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