Brian Jamieson, chairman of Sigma Healthcare, has said he intends to step down within the next 12 months after shareholders protested the remuneration report at Sigma’s annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Shareholders delivered an 18 per cent vote against the report during the meeting, while also opting to re-elect Jamieson, as well as David Manuel, as directors.

The vote signalled shareholders’ frustration over Sigma’s decision to reject a takeover offer by rival healthcare business Australian Pharmaceutical Industries, as well as a protest against the remuneration report itself, which included bonuses for board members in a year that has seen Sigma’s share price fall from 80 cents per share in June 2018 to 53 cents per share.

According to the Australian Financial Review, other directors of Sigma support Jamieson’s decision.

“This has been a defining year for Sigma,” Jamieson told shareholders at the business’s AGM.

Over the course of the year, Sigma walked away from a supply contract with Chemist Warehouse Group, causing a major fall in the business’s share pricehasn’t been recovered.

Sigma also walked away from the proposed merger with API, which Jamieson told shareholders was “somewhat opportunistic, with Sigma at its most vulnerable” after dropping the Chemist Warehouse Group supply contract.

“To agree to proceed may have been the easy decision, but our detailed analysis supported our view that it was not the right decision for mid to long-term shareholder value,” Jamieson said.