Funds Launch Proxy Fight for Occidental Seats

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Unhappy over hefty pay packages for Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s Chief Executive Ray Irani, two funds have announced their intention to unseat company board members, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Relational Investors LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System sent a letter Friday to the board of the Westwood-based oil and gas exploration company stating they will try to unseat four of 13 board members during next year’s annual meeting, held in the spring.

Last year, Irani received $31.4 million in total compensation, defined as salary, bonus, stock and options awards and other compensation. That was the most among chief executives at L.A.’s largest publicly traded companies, according to the Business Journal.

During the last decade, Irani has received $857 million in total compensation, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 27.

Ralph Whitworth, a principal at Relational Investors, will be a new candidate for a seat on the Occidental board, but the other candidates haven’t been selected, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Occidental’s board held a voluntar a “Say on Pay” vote at this year’s annual shareholder meeting. A majority of shareholders disapproved of fhte company’s compensation practices.

“Based on the vote, the board’s new compensation committee chairman has been meeting with investors and is expected in the next two months to make changes that are responsive to investors’ sentiments as expressed in the vote,” Richard Kline, Occidental’s vice-president of communication, told the Business Journal.

Shares of Occidental rose $2.26 or 3 percent, to close Monday at $80.19 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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