Wizz Air investors approve CE’s bonus package extension plan

Investors in Wizz Air approved plans to give the company’s chief executive an additional two years to unlock a bonus of GBP100m, despite a sizeable opposition at the low-cost carrier’s annual meeting. Almost 30% of the airline’s free float was cast against a resolution to give József Váradi until 2028 to obtain the one-off award if Wizz Air’s share price hits GBP120. Shares were trading just under GBP24 on Wednesday. The amendment was approved with 74% of the eligible votes supporting the resolution. Wizz Air said its board believed Váradi was “central to delivering [the airline’s] recovery in the coming years” and the changes to remuneration plans were “in the best interests of the company, its shareholders and other stakeholders”. However, the proposal had encountered significant opposition from proxy advisers prior to the meeting in Switzerland. Institutional Shareholder Services said the plan was “not fully in line with UK good practice”, while Pirc said the plans were “highly excessive” and “not considered to be acceptable”. Pirc argued that a share price was “often outside the control of individual directors and is often more effected by larger market changes”. Just under two-thirds of the votes at Wizz’s AGM in 2021 were cast in favour of the bonus scheme, with about a third voting against, despite criticism from shareholder advisory groups. This was because the vote was open only to a small proportion of investors after the airline was forced to water down the voting rights of shareholders from outside the European Economic Area, in order to comply with EU rules around airline ownership following Brexit. Wizz Air’s largest shareholder is US private equity firm Indigo Partners, which focuses on air transport and owns 24% of the company. Indigo’s founder William Franke has been chair of Wizz Air for almost two decades.<br/>