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Pressure from institutional shareholders is also growing on Chief Executive Bob Dudley, the first American to lead the British oil company since taking over in October, and Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg. Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, and the Florida State Board of Administration have said they will join other smaller U.S. and European religious and ethical funds in voting against the reappointment of Bill Castell, the head of the safety, ethics and environment assurance committee. The two state pension boards together own some 0.4 percent of BP's total stock. And both Pirc, the investor advice service, and the Association of British Insurers have issued warnings about excessive pay packages for two BP executives. Iain Conn, BP's head of refining and Chief Financial Officer Byron Grote are receiving $505,000 and $621,000 for their performances not related to the oil spill. Hayward has also grabbed headlines with a $17.9 million pension, $1.6 million payoff and about $13 million in share options despite a series of public gaffes that led to his ceding the CEO post to Dudley. Dudley is unlikely to face any direct criticism on this front though as he's waived his bonus this year. However, he will be under pressure to explain the stalled share swap with Russia's OAO Rosneft. In the deal, BP and Rosneft would exchange stakes valued each at about $8 billion. The deal was to cement BP's move forward from the Gulf spill and show it no longer needed to rely so heavily on the United States, where it is still barred from drilling in the Gulf. Instead, a quartet of Russian billionaires, who are BP's partners in the older TNK-BP venture have successfully challenged the share swap in the courts, acquiring an injunction against the deal. While BP has successfully gained some breathing room by getting Rosneft to extend the deadline, the injunction remains. BP said Thursday it would continue with the court-appointed arbitration process to "obtain a final award on all outstanding issues."
[Associated
Press;
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