Shareholder rebellion at TUI Travel

TUI, the company behind Thomson Holidays, saw a fifth of its investors vote against approving the company's remuneration report.

The vote was a clear sign of anger at the £2.4 million paid last year to former finance director Paul Bowtell, who left after a £117 million accounting error was belatedly uncovered.

The failure saw the shares tank when it was finally reported and Bowtell quickly stepped down, despite praise from chief executive Peter Long that he is "one of the most capable chief financial officers I know".

Bowtell was paid £745,000 in severance and enjoyed a one-off payment into his pension pot of £343,000. That major City institutions are now willing to protest about such payments show how widespread anger at executive pay has become.

The protest vote came on the same day that TUI reported first quarter results.

The company says is profiting at the expense of arch rival Thomas Cook, which required an emergency bailout from banks last year following three profit warnings.

Sales in the three months to the end of December were up 5% to £2.85 billion. It made a loss of £109 million that was widely anticipated by the City -- travel firms are usually in the red during the winter months.

Long, an industry veteran, said: "I think we are clearly a beneficiary of the uncertain environment that our competitor is operating in. We have always said that was likely."

Long is forthright about the difference between his company and Thomas Cook.

"The answer for us is very clear. We have and have had a very different strategy. We are building a unique portfolio of holiday experiences and we are embracing the on-line world. We are not threatened by it. We are a different business to them."

The shares, strong performers lately, slipped 4.5p to 202.3p.

Nick Batram at Peel Hunt said: "The relative performance of the UK business catches the eye.

The online and differentiated strategy appears to be delivering, and it is likely that the performance has been boosted by the troubles at Thomas Cook."

Cook shares are languishing at 13p. It updates the market on its own progress on Wednesday.