CEO Allen survives Granada meeting
Exec's pay cut as ad coin falls in the second quarter
One in four shareholders voted against the terms for Allen, who is chairman-CEO, and one in 10 voted against his re-election as a company director.
"If directors do underperform, it costs an awful lot more to get rid of them if they are on two-year contracts," said a spokesman for the National Assn. of Pension Funds, one of Granada's institutional investors, before the meeting.
Allen's 2002 pay package was cut to £1 million ($1.5 million) from $2 million, according to the annual report.
Granada's share price has fallen to a low of 55 pence (86¢) on the London Stock Exchange, and it reported a loss of $256 million for the last financial year.
Allen has been criticized for holding the chairman and CEO role. He has also come under fire for being awarded 2.4 million share options last year, and for agreeing to a $1.3 million payoff for chief exec Steve Morrison, who quit last year.
Granada confirmed that ad coin had fallen in the second quarter as advertisers defer expenditure because of the situation in Iraq.
Allen said none of the firm's major shareholders had asked him to step down if Granada's planned merger with fellow ITV shareholder Carlton Communications goes ahead.
Weekend press reports quoted some shareholders as saying Granada had been mismanaged and needed a boardroom clear-out.
(Reuters contributed to this report.)
