Shareholders from the British fashion house Burberry are up in arms about a proposed pay package for its CEO. They rejected a resolution at the company's annual general meeting to provide newly-appointed CEO Christopher Bailey with a multi-million-dollar remuneration deal. The vote was 52.7 per cent against the resolution. Executives proposed 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 share package has been called a "golden handcuffs" arrangement to stop him from joining a rival company in the next few years. He will also receive add-ons for pensions and performance bonuses.

Burberry chairman Sir John Peace defended the package. He said he was "disappointed" and would talk to shareholders. He said: "I want to understand why they felt so strongly to vote against." He said the packages for Bailey and his predecessor Angela Ahrendts were to keep "world-class executives" at the company. Under Ms Ahrendts' guidance between 2006 and 2014, the company's sales increased to over $3.4 billion, and shares gained more than threefold to $12 billion. Peace pointed out that many companies around the world would be willing to 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.

1. TRUE / FALSE:Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).

a.Burberry shareholders are up in arms about a salary package.T / F

b.The shareholders haven't yet rejected the pay deal.T / F

c.The new CEO will get over $12 million for joining the company.T / F

d.Burberry have offered the CEO a shares deal to stop him leaving.T / F

e.The chairman said he understood why shareholders felt bad.T / F

f.The chairman said world-class executives aren't interested in salary.T / F

g.The previous CEO triples the value of the company's share value.T / F

h.The present CEO joined the company over ten years ago.T / F

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1.What are shareholders up in arms about?

2.At what kind of meeting did shareholders reject a resolution?

3.How many people voted against the deal?

4.How much could the shares package be worth?

5.What will the CEO receive add-ons for?

6.How did the chairman feel about the shareholders' decision?

7.What does the chairman want to understand more?

8.What kind of people does the chairman want to keep?

9.By how many times did the previous CEO increase share value?

10.When did the new CEO join Burberry?

答案

TRUE / FALSE

a T b F c T d T e F f F g T h F

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1.A new pay package

2.Annual general meeting

3.52.7%

4.$33 million

5.Pensions and performance bonuses

6.Disappointed

7.Why people feel so strongly

8.World-class executives

9.Three

10.2001