AMC shareholders vote against CEO Adam Aron’s $19 million pay package

(Reuters) – Shareholders of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc voted against its proposed executive compensation including that of top boss Adam Aron at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, the theater chain said on Friday.

The vote at the meeting on Thursday was advisory, which means the company is not obligated to make changes to the compensation plan, it said in a regulatory filing

In 2021, Aron collected a total of $18.9 million in remuneration, down by about 10% from a year earlier, according to a filing

Aron’s pay last year included about $11.4 million in stock awards and his base salary rose about 32% to $1.45 million.

AMC said in April that the CEO and the company’s finance chief were given larger base salary hikes “in recognition of their extraordinary efforts to ensure the Company’s survival” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended that shareholders vote against the compensation plan, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

ISS and Glass Lewis did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The company’s shareholders also voted to elect all the board nominees, including Aron.

After becoming one of the biggest victims of the pandemic, AMC is seeing a revival in business, driven by a steady stream of new releases such as “Doctor Strange and the Multiversity of Madness” and “Top Gun: Maverick”.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)