Directors of under fire energy company Contact Energy enjoyed an expensive dinner at one of Auckland's headline restaurants the night before facing angry shareholders over plans to boost their pay packets.
As customers in Wellington and Otago faced up to 10 percent increases in power charges, the six Contact directors and about nine senior managers spent an estimated $2000-plus at Soul restaurant on Wednesday night, the Herald on Sunday reported.
At Thursday's annual meeting, shareholders angrily criticised the increase in the pool for directors' fees from $770,000 to $1.5 million.
After the meeting the company backed down on increasing directors' fees, announcing "there will be no increase in base fees at this time," Contact said it came to the decision after due consideration of the current economic environment.
Contact's corporate affairs general manager Bruce Parkes told the newspaper the meal was appropriate, given the board and staff were out of town - Contact is based in Wellington - and had just had an annual strategy day.
