Three big Dutch pension funds will refuse to back a bonus for Heineken chief executive Jean-François van Boxmeer at today’s AGM, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Thursday.

A number of other insitutional investors will also align themselves with the pension funds, a spokesman for fund MN Services said.

Heineken wants to give Van Boxmeer shares to the value of €1.5m as part of a golden handcuff package, plus a bonus of €2.5m for succesfully taking over Asia Pacific Breweries last autumn.

Reward

But the pension funds, including civil service giant ABP, say they do not think the share package is appropriate because it is rewarding a CEO for simply staying in the job.

They also contest the ABP bonus. ‘Heineken says itself that taking over APB filled in the strategy. So you have to see it as part of ordinary business,’ the MN Services spokesman told the FD.

On Wednesday Heineken announced it had sold 2.7% less beer in the first three months of this year, compared with 2012. Total revenue, excluding acquisitions, also fell 2.7%.