24/05/2016 World Business Report

Ben Van Beurden in the hot seat - is the boss of Shell paid too much?

Shareholders will have their say at the AGM today.

The Greek tragedy moves to another act - eurozone finance ministers

grapple with the country's long delayed bailout

Hello. Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock.

Also in the programme: Asia pacific airlines are back in the black.

The rebellion against multi-million pound executive pay is swelling.

Today, it's Shell executives who face a shareholder backlash.

Top investor groups are opposing the firms rising pay packet

for boss Ben Van Beurden who is in line for a salary of ?1.4m

That's despite the steepest losses in 13 years

Shell's AGM is set to be the latest revolt in this year's Shareholder

Spring, after BP shareholders voted against boss Bob Dudley's ?14m pay.

With me is Josh Black, editor-in-chief of Activist Insight.

It is nice to see you. We have had this conversation before, when BP

had the AGM. Is he paid too much? It is complicated. He is paid slightly

more than his peers in the oil and gas space. He is paid a lot less

last year than Bob Dudley was paid... Almost half. Exactly. It is

towards the lower and of his potential remuneration package if

that is believable. And during this time there has been a lot happening

at Shell, grappling with plummeting oil prices. And also, BG Group, the

megamerger which has created Shell and the combined company to be one

of the biggest oil and gas producers in the world, surely that need some

sort of reward. He is paid on metrics including safety,

negotiating the merger, die vesting assets, which is where a large chunk

of the award comes from -- divesting. He has not been paid a

huge amount of performance related pay when it comes to shareholder

value this year, so shareholders, you know, rightly feeling that the

company is at the bottom of the peer group, he is not paid on that

basis, but his salary has no up and this is at a time when earnings are

at a low and there is cash being taken out of the business -- nudged

up. In terms of his salary, let's say shareholders do... A majority

don't agree with the remuneration package, it won't change it, so what

impact will it have? It is advisory, so the company will have to go to

shareholders with a remuneration policy, which is binding, setting up

principles of pay, so if they lose today that it will be hard for them

to put forward their ideal package next year, so that will be a vote to

watch. It will still be a major embarrassment for Shell. Do you

feel, then, in recent years, shareholders have Jayden and more

influence when it comes to these kind of decisions? Yeah, they have

definitely had more votes on the subject. They have had more

influence in that way. I think they are still figuring out how best to

use these votes. What redlines they want to draw, what kind of long-term

incentive plans they want to see and how they want to structure these pay

deals, so there is still learning to go on and it will continue to

develop -- red lines. All right, Josh, thanks for coming in and I

will talk to you more on that subject. We will keep you up-to-date

on the AGM today and we will let you know how it goes.

Asia's airlines are turning a profit once again after some lean years.

And here to tell us why is Rico Hizon in

It is nice to see you. Less turbulence right now among the

regional carriers and, sadly, they recorded a combined earnings of $6.9

billion US last year compared with losses of more than $1 billion in

2014. The strong results were due to Thomas sustained growth, lower fuel

prices and operating efficiency including a record high passenger

load factor -- due to one, sustained growth. Earlier I asked if this

trend can be sustained into 2016. At this stage it looks like it will.

Oil prices have come up. They are around $50 a barrel. That is where

most of our loans are posture the business cases long-term have been.

-- airlines' business cases. These airlines are still gonna have to

make smart moves to stay ahead of the competition. They're gonna have

to invest in product to make it a long-term viable thing for them.

And, Sally, breaking down the numbers, Korean Airlines and

Singapore Airlines have done well on the lower rises, but they are not

having the impact they once did with flag carriers with the narrowing

margins of airfares. Sally. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Let's turn

attention to Greece. Eurozone finance ministers will

discuss Greece's long delayed bailout payment

and crucial debt relief The IMF said on Monday Greece needs

unconditional debt relief from European Union creditors,

a move that Germany opposes. Reforms agreed

on Sunday could help unlock more And experts think Athens is closer

to meeting conditions to get 10 million euros -

that's $11.2 billion - in new loans Demonstrators outside parliament

over the weekend as lawmakers approved another batch of reforms

that could pave the way for more bailout funds. The reforms include

raising taxes, setting up a new privatisation fund and making it

easier for banks to deal with problem loans. Plus a mechanism for

cutting spending if financial targets are missed. The Greek

Finance Minister needs to things - a long-delayed bailout payment and

debt relief. Rees needs the bailout cash ahead of debt repayments,

especially more than 2 billion euros due to central banks in the eurozone

in July -- two things. But zone finance ministers will also debate

that relief, something the International Monetary Fund even CIS

is needed to make Rees's debt burden sustainable, which would mean lower

interest rates and more time to repay debts but no reduction or

haircut to the amount that Athens must pace back -- is needed --

Greece -- payback. In other news: Spotify has seen

revenue reach $2.2 billion in the past year,

but the Swedish music streaming Spotify offers music over

the internet for free with advertisements, or

ad-free for a fixed monthly rate. Revenue increased by 80% over the

past year, beating the 45% growth But net losses increased by 7%

from the previous year. Toyota is recalling nearly 1.6

million vehicles in the US, to replace potentially faulty air

bag inflators made by Takata. The Japanese automaker said

the latest recall includes some but not all models of the Corolla,

Sienna, and Lexus ES manufactured Toyota said it has recalled over 4

million vehicles in the American firm Coca cola has stopped

producing soft drinks in Venezuela, because of a sugar shortage

in the country. Sugarcane production has been

falling, The company said it would continue

producing sugarless drinks such The firm's announcement comes

after Venezuela's biggest brewer closed ITS plants

due to a barley shortage. Let's quickly show you financial

markets, so you have a sense of how things are going. A mixed picture.

Japan is down almost 1%. Hong Kong one third of a percent and the yen

is strong at the moment, it is quite resilient. A lot of people are

trading ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting in June. People are looking

ahead to that now. Many are thinking maybe the Federal Reserve will raise

rates and that is affecting trade around the world. That is how it

ended on Wall Street last night. I will see you soon.