Shareholders in AGL Energy, Australia’s largest power producer, on Tuesday defied their board and approved all four directors proposed by the company’s top shareholder, tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, proxy votes showed.
At the same time, in a surprise outcome, Chair Patricia McKenzie said shareholders likely rejected the company’s executive pay plan, based on proxy votes, led by opposition from two major shareholders, whom she did not name.
Climate activist Cannon-Brookes, with an 11% stake in AGL, succeeded earlier this year in forcing the company to scrap a demerger and instead announce plans to speed up the closing of its coal-fired power plants by a decade and spend up to A$20 billion on renewable energy by 2036.
