Company News

Alliance Versus RIT Capital

Readers will no doubt be aware from the national media and communications with shareholders that RIT Capital have approached Alliance Trust about a possible merger. The press have noted the problems faced by Alliance in the last few years such as the persistently high discount and the attack by Elliot Advisors (supported by ATSAG/ShareSoc of course) that resulted in board changes. RIT shares have traded at a premium to net asset value recently and media comments tend to generally be positive ...

Rolls-Royce and Voting Procedures

I published a report on the Rolls-Royce Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the last ShareSoc newsletter and also here. I wrote to the Chairman after the meeting complaining about...

Teathers Financial – Requisition to Remove Directors

Investors in Teathers Financial (TEA) have requisitioned an EGM to remove all the current directors and appoint new ones, which was accepted by the company on the 25th May. Teathers was an AIM listed business called C.A.Sperati that turned itself into an investment company and was then renamed (a common route for those giving up on their original business). However under AIM listing rules it needs to make investments within a year of becoming an investment company which it failed to ...

Alliance Trust and RIT Capital

Several newspapers reported this morning that Alliance Trust (ATST) has been approached by RIT Capital Partners (RCP) about a possible merger. Both companies are listed investment trusts favoured by private investors. Alliance Trust has been going through some difficult times of late after a period of poor relative performance resulting in a high discount to net asset value (currently over 10% according to the AIC despite an active share buy-back programme whereas RCP is on a 6% premium at the time ...

Pay at WPP

ShareSoc has issued a press release advising investors to vote against the Remuneration Report at WPP Plc. In particular we think the pay of CEO Sir Martin Sorrell is excessive (£70 million in 2015). See https://www.sharesoc.org/pr79-wpp-remuneration.html for the full press release. This is one of several advisory notices on pay we have issued to ShareSoc Members recently. The previous ones were on Reckitt Benckiser, Anglo American and BP. It is very clear that the reforms to tackle excessive pay introduced by Vince ...

The Restaurant Group AGM Report (RTN)

Today I attended the Annual General Meeting of The Restaurant Group for the first time - held in the City of London at 10.00 am. There were about 50 shareholders present which I was told was slightly more than normal, perhaps because the company seems to be in some turmoil after recent profit warnings and the abrupt departure of the finance director. From being one of those stock market growth stocks on high valuations (share price peaking at over 700p in ...

Alliance Trust AGM

I was unfortunately unable to travel to the Alliance Trust AGM in Dundee as I hoped to do because of a medical problem, but here is a report from Jim Cook: Alliance Trust 2016 AGM, Dundee, 6th May 2016 The AGM was well attended with around 300 shareholders represented. In his opening remarks Lord Smith explained why he had accepted the Chairmanship. Firstly, the company faced challenges.  Secondly, what needed to be done had been identified.  Thirdly, a plan was in place.  Lord ...

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 ...