Report
Expert Corporate Governance Service (ECGS)
EUR 1000.00 For Business Accounts Only

GVC Holdings – AGM 24 June 2020

Mr. Lee Feldman stepped down as Chairman. He and Chief Executive Kenneth

Alexander sold around 3 million of GVC shares in March 2019, driving the companyns

shares down. Mr. Feldman has agreed to waive his 12-month notice period and any

associated payments. The Committee offered him the right to retain a part of one-off

fee received in 2017 and deferred until the end of 2020. According to the group, their

value was £ 231k.

 

Item 2: Remuneration report

 

Last year, the remuneration report was highly contested (58% of votes FOR). The shareholders revolted against the CEO's salary increase from £750,000 to £950,000 (+26.7%) and the vesting of the 2015 Legacy award. He received £16.36m and the Chairman £7.74m. Since 2016, this schemes has awarded to them £67m, while the group has reported net losses for the fourth consecutive year.

 

We welcome the reduction of the CEOns salary. However, it still significantly exceeds peers. And we have serious concerns about the STI and LTI performance measures. The bonus was at its maximum while GVC reported an operational loss and the loss per share doubled in 2019. The total variable remuneration was 474% of base salary, confirming that incentive targets are insufficiently challenging. There should be a better alignment between GVC's KPIs, shareholder value creation and executive remuneration.

 

On 1 May 2020 the Company announced that given the financial challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was appropriate for the Board of Directors and members of the Companyns Executive Committee ("ExCop") to take a voluntary 20% reduction in basic salary and fees for three months from 1 May 2020. Also, the Executive Board Directors and ExCo members had decided to forego their bonuses for 2020. Furthermore, the payment of directorsn'bonuses and the grant of the 2020 LTIP awards have been postponed.

Underlying
Entain PLC

GVC Holdings is a holding company. Through its subsidiaries, Co. is an online gaming company, provides business to consumer and business to business services to the online gaming and sports betting markets in Europe and Latin America. Co. operates in two segments, Sports and Gaming. Co. offers sports betting, casinos, games, and poker through online and mobile under the Sportingbet brand; and online bingo, sportsbook, casino, and poker access under the Betboo brand, as well as operates an online casino Website for German-speaking markets under the CasinoClub brand. Co. also various online poker games, including No Limit Texas Hold'em, Fixed Limit Texas Hold'em, and Pot Limit Texas Hold'em.

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Proxinvest
Proxinvest

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Expert Corporate Governance Service (ECGS)

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