More interesting events at the Telit Communications (TCM) AGM yesterday. This is a company that has been through troubled times of late with the departure of former CEO Oozi Cats under a cloud and lots of questions about their accounts being raised. But events at the AGM were even more surprising when the Chairman Richard Kilsby and two other non-executive directors were voted off the board on a poll. The meeting lasted all of ten minutes apparently.
Existing non-executive director Simon Duffy took over as Interim Chairman and one of the removed directors, Miriam Greenwood, was promptly reappointed (i.e. co-opted to the board). This was so as to ensure the “board and its committees continue to be quorate with an appropriate number of independent, non-executive directors” according to the announcement by the company.
Is it legal for a board to reappoint a director just removed by a vote of shareholders? The answer is yes unless a resolution was passed to the contrary. Whether it is acceptable practice is another matter altogether.
I have come across this situation once before at Victoria where the Chairperson reappointed someone just removed by a vote of shareholders. I did not like it then when the justification given was the need to have at least two directors to maintain the company’s listing. I recall saying at the time: “is there nobody else in the company who is willing to step forward”. The Chairperson was subsequently removed by shareholders.
Does the justification for re-appointing a removed director by the Telit board make any sense? Not really in my view. Board committees don’t sit frequently and new non-executive directors can usually be recruited relatively quickly. Perhaps the board anticipated some problems in that regard as joining this board might be perceived as being risky. But Telit is an AIM company so is not bound by the UK Corporate Governance Code regarding the number of independent directors and composition of board committees and nor is there any AIM Market Rule that I am aware of that would require them to immediately appoint another non-executive director. Even if the company is adhering to some other corporate governance code, the rules are typically “comply or explain” and obviously the company would have a good explanation for non-compliance.
It would seem to me that the board simply considered it a good idea to reappoint Miriam Greenwood, but when shareholders have voted to remove her, I suggest she should have stayed removed. Shareholders views and rights should not be abused in this manner. It is surely time for the FCA or FRC to lay down some guidelines on what is permissible in such circumstances as the Companies Act does not cover it.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
Regarding governance codes, note that ShareSoc contributed to and supports the QCA Code for smaller companies (http://www.theqca.com/shop/guides/143986/corporate-governance-code-2018.thtml), including AIM companies. I understand that the AIM rules are being reviewed, with the possible addition of a rule to require “comply or explain” adherence to either the full CG Code or the QCA one.
Mark Bentley