Capita chiefs suffer investor protest

Capita's investors voiced their discontent with the board yesterday despite the company insisting it was on course for "strong growth".

At the annual meeting in London shareholders overwhelmingly backed Capita's pay report, but more than 7 per cent voted against re-electing the chief executive, Paul Pindar. The chairman, Martin Bolland, and finance director, Gordon Hurst, received a similar number of votes.

Earlier in the day the support services giant said it had won £660m-worth of contracts with bodies including the Cabinet Office, Carphone Warehouse and the University of Strathclyde, and had completed seven small acquisitions for a total of £165m.

Although the new business is down on last year's £823m, Capita said its bid pipeline (projects valued between £25m and £1bn for which the company has been shortlisted) stood at £5.2bn.