Company News

Rolls-Royce and Other AGMs

Yesterday I attended the Annual General Meeting of Rolls-Royce Plc - held at 11.00 in Nottingham (at a conference centre on the University Park). Why move the venue from London where it has been held since 2004? Probably to attract a more sympathetic audience of ex-employees I suspect. Shareholders in Rolls-Royce don't need to be told that this company is going through a rough patch. Profits in the last two years have been miniscule, the dividends have been cut and even revenue ...

Pay at Weir, Reckitt-Benckiser and WPP

Yesterday saw Weir Group Plc defeated on pay. Both the Remuneration Report and Remuneration Policy resolutions were lost with 73% and 70% of votes AGAINST them respectively. This is a very damning blow to this FTSE-250 company which makes pumps for the mining and oil markets. The company subsequently issued a grovelling apologia for the proposals they had tried to implement which included a "stock awards" scheme that was based on share price performance rather than more direct performance criteria (such as ...

ShareSoc slams LSE over AIM failures

ShareSoc slams London Stock Exchange over AIM failures - that was the title of a press release which ShareSoc has issued after the LSE Group's AGM which was held today - see https://www.sharesoc.org/pr76lseaim.html ShareSoc Director Mark Bentley spoke at the AGM and suggested that "AIM is full of dubious businesses led by dubious people". He asked them to do something about it. Perhaps the merger with the German Deutsche Boerse will mean the introduction of a more disciplined approach to some of ...

Atlantis Japan Growth Fund – Requisition to Restructure or Liquidate

Atlantis Japan Growth Fund (AJG) is a closed end investment company (i.e. like an investment trust) focussed on small Japanese companies. It has had disappointing performance in recent years, is trading on a significant discount to asset value, has low liquidity, and is now relatively small in size. Indeed the current market capitalisation is only £54 million which many people would consider unviable, as a result it has relatively high costs (2.47% On-Going Charge according to the AIC). The fund has ...

Sprue Aegis (SPRP) Business Review

The directors of Sprue Aegis have agreed to answer ShareSoc Members questions on Wednesday the 27th April following the recent trading statement (profit warning) and after the results announcement on the previous day. This event will commence at 6.00 pm and last approximately one hour. It will be at the office of Tavistock Communications at: 131 Finsbury Pavement, London, EC2A 1NT. If you plan to attend please tell us by using the ShareSoc Contact page here: Contact - mention “Sprue Aegis ...

Anglo American and Pay

Following ShareSoc's recommendation to vote against the Remuneration Report at Anglo American, yesterday the company received 42% of shareholders votes AGAINST it. Other advisory bodies also recommended opposition and this is a significant snub to the board which they will have to do something about. The ShareSoc press release we issued is here: https://www.sharesoc.org/pr74angloamercian.html The Investment Association which represents institutional investors has published a report which suggests that pay in public companies is "not fit for purpose" and needs reform. This has ...

Lakehouse, Stock Spirits and Sprue Aegis

I commented on the affairs of Lakehouse and Stock Spirits in the last ShareSoc newsletter. Both companies had been attacked by unhappy shareholders who had submitted requisitions to change certain directors, a process that seems to be becoming more common of late. Both situations have now to been resolved to a great extent. At Lakehouse the Chairman Chris Geoghegan is departing forthwith, with the three new directors proposed by the requistioners being appointed to the board as non-executive directors including founder Steve ...

Vote Against Remuneration at RELX

ShareSoc is advising its Members to vote against the Remuneration Report resolution at the RELX Annual General Meeting on 21 April 2016. ShareSoc consider the pay of the CEO...

Persimmon AGM and Remuneration

On the same day as BP held its Annual General Meeting (AGM), and got snubbed by shareholders over its Remuneration Report, house building company Persimmon held its AGM in York. One might have expected that Persimmon would also have been attacked for its remuneration scheme, for the reasons explained below, but in reality it passed with only 9% of votes against. Indeed there was more opposition to the election of a new non-executive director, Nigel Mills, who only passed with 53% ...

BP Remuneration Vote Lost

BP had 59% of shareholders voting AGAINST the Remuneration Resolution at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 14/4/2016 (and that's ignoring the abstentions which some institutions like to use to express dissatisfaction). This is what the Chairman had to say even before the vote was cast: "We know already from the proxies received and conversations with our institutional investors that there is real concern over the directors' pay in this challenging year for our shareholders. We have always judged executive performance not ...

Stock Spirits – A More Direct Approach

I have commented on the affairs of Lakehouse recently where disgruntled major investors have requisitioned an EGM to replace all the non-executive directors. One commentator asked why the investors did not try to change the CEO also. A more direct approach is being taken at Stock Spirits (STCK) where concerned shareholder Western Gate Private Investment, who own 9% of the company, have submitted a requisition to remove the CEO, Chris Heath, and also appoint two new experienced non-executive directors. Stock Spirits is ...

Lakehouse – Corporate Governance is Not Just About Box Ticking

The affairs of Lakehouse where major investors Slater Investments and Steve Rawlings have requisitioned an EGM to remove and replace the non-executive directors has been covered in previous blog posts. Slater has now issued some explanation for the reasons which can be read here: http://www.investegate.co.uk/slater-investments/rns/egm-statement/201604010700107965T/ The board of Lakehouse criticised the three new directors proposed on the basis that they were not independent and hence that corporate governance rules were being broken. The requisitioners say though that "Corporate governance is not just ...