Hopes high for upbeat stance at WPP

FOR once, Sir Martin Sorrell's pay package is unlikely to be the centre of attention at WPP's annual meeting today.

Instead, shareholders will be keen to know whether the first knight of advertising remains as bullish as he has appeared in past quadrennial-event years, with the Olympics, US Presidential election and Euro football taking place. Analysts are confident WPP can achieve revenue growth of about 13% in the current year and probably beat its own 13.8% profit-margin target.

The meeting should also be a public opportunity for back-slapping Sorrell over his recent (although not entirely single-handed) win of the entire HSBC advertising-account worldwide. That is worth a cool $600m (£444m) a year and was the first time that ad agencies competed head-on, pitching to the worldwide bank's top holding-company level. Similar parent-company-type pitches are taking place for the global accounts of Samsung and Nestlé.

On the pay side, WPP decided to get the controversy out of the way well before today's meeting.

Sorrell's package rose by a third to £2.13m last year and a new five-year bonus scheme, which could see him qualify for a maximum £44m payout over that time, was approved at a special shareholder meeting in April.