R117 million win for Shoprite CEO after boardroom battle
Shoprite investors approved the remuneration policy for the company’s CEO, Pieter Engelbrecht, despite calls from international advisory groups to vote against it.
On Friday, 6 November 2026, shareholders voted in favour of the proposed CEO remuneration policy, which resulted in Engelbrecht’s total remuneration rising to roughly R117 million.
The policy introduced a new long-term incentive scheme to the CEO’s pay package, which some investors said was not adequately justified.
Two of the world’s largest shareholder proxy advisor services, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis & Co., previously said the remuneration plan should be rejected.
This was due to questions regarding “the repeated use of exceptional awards on top of Shoprite’s existing incentive programmes”, according to Bloomberg.
ISS argued that Shoprite had not adequately justified the additional incentives and raised concerns about a special modifier that was applied to trigger a short-term incentive payment, despite actual performance falling below the target threshold.
Several US investors in Shoprite said they would listen to the advice of these advisory groups, including:
- The State Board of Administration of the Florida Retirement System
- Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management
- The California Public Employees’ Retirement System
- The Christian Brothers Investment Services
- The California State Teachers Retirement System
Despite objections from these groups, Shoprite ultimately passed the resolution approving the CEO remuneration policy.
The resolution passed with 70.91% for and 29.09% against, representing 88.28% of the company’s total issued shares.
While roughly 71% of the shares voted were in favour of the remuneration policy, the vote was much closer by the number of ordinary shares voted.
53.81% of ordinary shares voted for the resolution, while 46.19% voted against, and 100% of deferred shares voted in its favour.
These deferred shares are largely held by billionaire Christo Wiese, Shoprite’s former chairman, and are held alongside ordinary shares.
These shares give Wiese approximately 41% of the voting rights in Shoprite, aiding the passage of the controversial remuneration resolution.
Wiese was a strong supporter of the remuneration policy and said there was a sufficient rationale for its passing.
He also sits on the company’s remuneration committee and said the policy “isn’t something that was just decided in two seconds”.
The R117 million remuneration package for Engelbrecht comes on the back of a strong performance by Shoprite in its last financial year.
The Group’s revenue increased by approximately 7.1% to R274 billion for the year ended 28 June 2026, while operating profit increased by 5.7%.
(Reported with Bloomberg)
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