Breaking News English

Burberry shareholders are very angry about a planned pay package for its newly-appointed CEO. They rejected a proposal at the company's annual general meeting to provide Christopher Bailey with a multi-million-dollar pay deal. The vote was 52.7 per cent against the proposal. Executives wanted to hand Mr Bailey a $12.3 million "golden hello", an annual salary of up to $17 million and shares worth up to $33 million by 2018. The shares have been called "golden handcuffs" to stop him from joining a rival company. He will also receive add-ons for pensions and performance bonuses.

Burberry chairman Sir John Peace defended the package and was "disappointed" with shareholders. He said: "I want to understand why they felt so strongly." He said the packages for Bailey and his predecessor were to keep "world-class executives" at the company. Under the former CEO's guidance, the company's sales increased to over $3.4 billion, and shares increased threefold to $12 billion. Peace said many companies would pay Mr Bailey a lot more. He added that Bailey was "worth every penny". Bailey joined Burberry in 2001 as Design Director and became Creative Director in 2004.