Shareholders at AstraZeneca are in line for a 7% increase in dividends this year as the pharmaceutical company attempts to garner support for a pay deal worth up to £19m for its boss, Pascal Soriot.
AstraZeneca said it intended to increase the annual dividend for 2024 by $0.20 to $3.10 a share, reflecting its confidence in its performance and cash generation.
The updatecame hours before a crunch vote on Thursday over the new pay deal for its long-serving chief executive.
The proposals will increase Soriot’s pay by £1.8m, taking his annual package to £18.7m, including cash and long-term share bonuses. Soriot has received nearly £120m in the decade since taking over at the drugmaker.
However, the deal has had a mixed reception, with the High Pay Centre saying the proposed package, which is 1,000 times more than a minimum wage, was “excessive” and could not be justified.
Others have backed the deal. GQG Partners, one of the company’s main shareholders, told the Financial Times Soriot was “massively underpaid” and deserved the raise due to AstraZeneca’s strong performance.
Last year, AstraZeneca made better-than-expected revenues of $45.8bn (£36bn), driven by the lung cancer drug Tagrisso and other oncology treatments, which made up more than a third of sales. Profit before tax jumped to $6.9bn from $2.5bn.
AstraZeneca’s shares were up 1%, to £108.41, on the news of the proposed dividend increase.
The company’s chair, Michel Demaré, said: “The board is delighted to announce a 7% increase to the dividend, taking it to $3.10 a share. This uplift is in line with our progressive dividend policy, which remains unchanged, and reflects the continuing strength of AstraZeneca’s investment proposition for shareholders.”
The company said the increase took into account other capital allocation policies. Its annual meeting will be hold in London on Thursday afternoon.
