Blue chip giants Tesco and Royal Bank of Scotland will be in sharp focus as they hold their annual general meetings this week, with the supermarket’s latest sales figures also under scrutiny.

Tesco is likely to reveal sales coming under further pressure on Friday and will hold its annual shareholder gathering amid investor concern over its chairman and the pay-offs of its departed chief executive.

Shareholder body Pirc recommends that investors vote against the supermarket’s remuneration report which includes a £1.2million pay-off to former boss Philip Clarke, on top of £764,000 in salary until mid-January.

Mr Clarke was given the leaving pay-off in February despite the group’s financial woes, while former finance director Laurie McIlwee was also paid around £1m on leaving in addition to salary payments. Tesco said it plans to claw back the leaving payment if it finds there was gross misconduct following the discovery of an accounting black hole.

But Pirc said: “Such service payments are particularly concerning as the track-record of these two executives at the head of the company was particularly poor.”

Pric also opposes the group’s new chairman John Allan, who in February agreed to step down from the boards of electrical retailer Dixons Carphone and the Royal Mail to take up the post at Tesco.

He replaced Sir Richard Broadbent who announced his resignation last October after a £263m accounting blunder involving rebates to suppliers highlighted practices going back a number of years.

However, Mr Allan remains on the board of housebuilder Barratt Developments. Pirc says a chairman of more than one large public company cannot effectively oversee both, particularly because at Tesco “the possibility of having to commit additional time to the role in times of crisis is ever present”.

Annual figures in April showed Tesco suffered one of the biggest losses in corporate history as it reported a staggering £6.4billion loss and warned of a tough challenge to return to profit growth this year.

A sales update also due on Friday is expected to see first quarter like-for-like sales down around 2%, a further slide on the 1% fall in the previous quarter, although it would mark an improvement on a drop of 3.7% a year ago as the measures introduced by new chief Dave Lewis begin to take effect.

In January Tesco published the location of 43 loss-making stores that will close, and shelved plans to open a further 49 stores. Mr Lewis has also cut prices across hundreds on lines as the supermarket price war hots up as major grocers battle discounters such as Aldi and Lidl.

Other changes under Mr Lewis also include shutting Tesco’s final salary pension scheme, disposing of its loss-making blinkbox operation selling online videos and moving its main headquarters from Cheshunt to Welwyn Garden City in a measure expected to save £250m.

Bosses at Royal Bank of Scotland will face shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting on Tuesday following the lender’s latest embarrassing glitch that saw 600,000 payments fail to go through.

The state-backed bank will likely have to fend off some tough questioning over the debacle, which impacted direct debits and payments for thousands of customers across all four of its banking brands - NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank and private bank Coutts.

It is another blow to the group, which has been hit by a number of IT failures in recent years.

The AGM in Edinburgh also comes as the Government prepares to begin selling the taxpayer’s 79% stake in the bank after Chancellor George Osborne announced the plans in his annual Mansion House speech.

Shareholders at the AGM are being asked to vote in favour of plans for the bank to cover the costs of publishing any documents related to the impending share sale by the Government.

There may also be some investor questions over pay at the lender after it was revealed 72 bankers earned £1m in 2014, the same as the year before despite sustained losses and more fines for past wrongdoing.

Chief executive Ross McEwan decided to forgo a £1m role-based incentive, but was still paid £1.85m for 2014, including a £1m basic salary, £143,00 in benefits, £350,000 for his pension and £358,000 from a long-term bonus award.

Shareholder advisory group Pirc said Mr McEwan’s pay relative to financial performance was “not acceptable” and described awards under the bank’s long-term share plan as “excessive”.

Debenhams is expected to reveal a sales slide when it updates on trading on Thursday as the department store chain continues to overhaul the business.

Analysts at Numis expect the retailer, which has 161 UK stores and 246 outlets worldwide, to report like-for-like sales down 2% in the first 40 weeks of the year, compared with a 1.3% rise in same stores sales a year ago.

The broker blames a shift in the timing of sale days and a warm May, which has been challenging for clothing retailers.

A year earlier Debenhams was forced to issue a Christmas profits warning due to poor sales and a botched promotional strategy. The company has since cut its discounting in a bid to boost its full-priced sales, overhauled its online offer and is also renting out some of its under-used space to other retailers.

It has opened Costa coffee, Sports Direct, Mothercare and Monsoon concessions in a number of its stores.

The company also launched new delivery option in time for last Christmas, with next-day click and collect and a 10pm cut-off for next-day delivery.

Numis said despite the fall in like-for-like sales it backed the management’s steps to improve the business led by chief executive Michael Sharp.

The broker said: “We remain encouraged that management is now addressing some of Debenhams’ challenges, including efforts to offset the dilution of the online shift, reduced promotional activity, concessions to improve the in-store experience, and a more restrained approach to buying.”