Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance News

This section on Corporate Governance provides investors with the latest topical news plus some informal comments and insights from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors.

Blancco Technology Group and Corporate Governance

I attended the AGM of Blancco Technology Group (BLTG) yesterday (29/11/2016). The Government announced a review of Corporate Governance yesterday but is it not surprising that companies cannot get...

ShareSoc Welcomes Corporate Governance Review

ShareSoc has issued the following Press Release: ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) welcomes the Government's announcement today of a review of Corporate Governance in both public and larger private companies. It is good to see that the Green Paper both discusses the problems of executive pay and the influence of stakeholders other than shareholders on businesses while setting out a number of options for further reform. As regards director pay, the document makes clear that despite more obligations on companies on ...

Inconvenient AGM Times – Proactis

Yet another example of an inconvenient date/time for an AGM is Proactis Holdings (PHD) - see previous blog posts covering the same issue at Dunelm and DX Group. Proactis have called their Annual General Meeting for 9.30 am on the 19th December in Wetherby (Yorkshire). That is a Monday morning of the week before Christmas to begin with, and the time makes it very difficult for most investors to make it without staying overnight. Wetherby may be an acceptable location, but a time ...

ShareSoc Highlights Investor Concerns to Select Committee

ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) was asked to give evidence to the Business, Energy, Innovation and Skills (BEIS) Select Committee Inquiry on Corporate Governance. Cliff Weight represented ShareSoc at the inquiry on the 23rd November. You can watch the session in which he appears by clicking on this link (Cliff appears in the second half of the session): http://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/053aad45-73c6-43e4-9d36-fd43c3850b60 Here is a summary of some of the points he and other witnesses made: Cliff indicated that individual shareholders are under-represented: The views of ...

FRC Lab Report on Business Model Disclosure

Do you ever have difficulty understanding how a company really makes its money? If so it's worth noting that the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) have recently published a report on the work of their "Lab" into Business Model Reporting which may be of interest. ShareSoc participated in the work of this Lab where various stakeholders discussed what improvements were necessary. To quote from the FRC's press release, the Lab found: Business model information is fundamental to investors’ analysis and understanding of a company ...

More Power Requested for Ultimate Investors

ShareSoc has issued a press release noting our submission to the Parliament BIS Committee Inquiry into Corporate Governance. It requests more power for ultimate investors. Here is a brief summary of the contents (the press release includes a link to our full submission). We suggest that the goal should be to get more power back to the ultimate investors. This can be achieved by: - Ensuring that individual shareholders can exercise their rights, even if their shares are held in nominee accounts. - Providing ...

Pay and the Attitude of Institutional Investors

An article in the Financial Times on Friday (30/9/2016) focussed on the resistance of business to Theresa May's "responsible capitalism". Although the article acknowledged the need for change, for example in the area of director remuneration. Lots of practical problems were raised - for example how to select suitable worker representatives for boards in international companies. But the really revealing comment was this one from Paul Lee, Head of Corporate Governance at Aberdeen Asset Management. He was quoted as saying: "If ...

Foresight 4 VCT AGM Result

At the Annual General Meeting of Foresight 4 VCT today, all three board directors only very narrowly managed to get re-elected – with 50.01% voting FOR Chairman Philip Stephens,...

AIM – Is Enough Being Done to Protect Investors?

Last night (27/9/2016) BBC Radio covered the topic of the AIM market and asked whether enough was being done to protect investors. See File on Four www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wby0z . Here's a brief summary of the contents with some comments. The BBC visited Hotel Chocolat, a recent AIM listing, and spoke to Angus Thirlwell, the CEO. He indicated they wanted "light touch regulation" so as to avoid a lot of paperwork and said it was one of the attractions of AIM. Comment: it seems ...

Corporate Governance Inquiry Launched in Parliament

The BIS Select Committee of MPs has launched an inquiry into corporate governance focussing on executive pay, directors duties, and the composition of boardrooms. That includes worker representation and gender balance in executive positions. It has been prompted by the recent comments from the Prime Minister and the Committees recent inquiries into BHS and Sports Direct where major failings were revealed in the way those businesses were run. The terms of reference for this inquiry are very broad - see this web ...