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.

Robert Peston goes shopping and Carpetright

Last night a new series of TV programmes called “Robert Peston Goes Shopping” was launched on the BBC. It told the story of how a few individuals changed the nature of retailing in the UK in the 1950s and 60s. People such as Stanley Kalms of Dixons who was interviewed, Marcus Sieff of Marks and Spencer, Jack Cohen of Tesco and the Sainsburys. Typically these were dominant and self-driven personalities who adopted new methods to attract retail customers from their competitors. ...

New pay rules, and MS International

Yesterday was the dawn of a new era. The rules that impose the requirement of a binding, forward-looking vote on remuneration at UK listed companies came into force. Also there will be much clearer information provided on total remuneration, making it easy both to compare the figures with those of other companies and decide whether you like the numbers. It might not totally solve the problem of excessive director pay in FTSE-100 companies, but it is at least a step in the ...

Diageo votes at AGM – more opposition

This morning Diageo announced their voting results from the poll at their AGM on the previous day. Isn’t it annoying when the poll is not declared at the meeting so shareholders cannot question the board on the results? But that aside, they got 11.8% against the Remuneration Report, up from 7.5% last year. This rather reflects the complaints in the meeting itself about the general level of remuneration in such large FTSE-100 companies. It seems likely that last year’s figures were somewhat ...

Real Good Food – an example of poor AIM corporate governance

Chris Spencer-Phillips, a ShareSoc Director, attended the AGM of Real Good Food last week. This is typical of many AIM companies in that it has very poor corporate governance. They have an Executive Chairman, who refused to answer the questions from a shareholder at the meeting. In addition they have pay which is wildly out of line with the profitability and general size of the company. That includes £798k (including consultancy fees) to the Chairman, plus share options; and one of ...

Transparency and Trust – Consultation Response Submitted

ShareSoc is submitting a response to the BIS Discussion Paper on “Transparency & Trust” which can be read here:  www.sharesoc.org/Transparency_&_Trust_ShareSoc_Response.pdf . This wide ranging consultation is on a number of proposals to tackle many problems in the modern corporate scene, with a particular focus on tax avoidance and money laundering. Knowing who controls and owns companies is one of the concerns, but it also aims to tackle incompetent and fraudulent directors. A summary of the key points ShareSoc made in our ...