ADVERTISING guru Sir Martin Sorrell was yesterday at the centre of a major revolt by shareholders over the length of his contract.

The rebellion by shareholders in global advertising group WPP, which is run by Sir Martin, attracted almost half of the vote ahead of the company's annual meeting yesterday.

In a vote on the company's remuneration report, which includes details of executives' pay and bonuses, 47 per cent of the proxy votes, which represent the major institutional investors, were either outright rejections or abstentions.

Votes cast by those individual shareholders who attended the meeting were still being counted.

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), whose members collectively own about one fifth of the stock market through their investments, had called for shareholders to abstain in the vote because of concerns over his three-year contract.

A three-year term is considered to be highly unusual with one-year contracts being increasingly regarded as standard.

The contract, which is re-examined once a year, is due to expire at the end of August 2005.

If Sir Martin were ousted in a takeover of the company, he would stand to receive a so-called golden parachute of about £2.4m.