WPP will next week begin tense talks with shareholders after they delivered a stinging blow to Sir Martin Sorrell and the marketing group’s board at Wednesday’s annual meeting.

Investors holding some 60 per cent of WPP, the world’s largest advertising group by market capitalisation and sales, voted down a remuneration report that included a 60 per cent pay rise for Sir Martin. The protest vote is not binding but was the largest yet for a FTSE 100 company this year, when shareholder activism over pay has been on the rise.

Philip Lader, WPP’s chairman of 11 years, and Jeffrey Rosen, the Lazard deputy chairman who heads WPP’s remuneration committee, are also under pressure after the meeting in Dublin. – (Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2012)