Shareholder Democracy

Some Interesting Meetings – Palace Capital, Dunelm, NCC

There are some interesting meetings in prospect for investors. Firstly, I notice Simon Thompson has tipped Palace Capital (PCA) in this week’s Investors Chronicle. He suggests this property investment...

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 ...

Foresight 4 VCT Announce Board and Other Changes

Following a campaign by some shareholders in Foresight 4 VCT Plc (FTF) supported by ShareSoc (see www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/foresight-4-vct/) which resulted in the directors only narrowly managing to get re-elected at the recent AGM, the company has now responded with a major announcement. The proposed changes are: Chairman Philip Stephens and Director Peter Dicks indicate they intend to retire from the board. A specialist recruitment firm is being engaged to identify suitable candidates to replace them (this was one of the suggestions that ...

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,...

Restoring Responsible Ownership

"Restoring Responsible Ownership" is the title of a paper published today by Chris Philp, M.P., on the topic of "Ending the Ownerless Corporation and Controlling Executive Pay". Many people, including ShareSoc, have pointed out the problems in the current governance of public companies. Professor John Kay covered many of the issues in his admirable review of how the stock market operates in his Kay Review a few years ago. One of the symptoms has been rapidly rising director pay as institutions ...

Pay of FTSE-100 CEOs, and Berkeley Group

The High Pay Centre have just published their latest analysis of the pay of FTSE-100 CEOs. Their average pay is now £5.5 million and it grew by over 10% from the previous year. Stefan Stern of the High Pay Centre said "There is apparently no end yet in sight to the rise and rise of FTSE100 CEO pay packages. In spite of the occasional flurry from more active shareholders, boards continue to award ever larger amounts of pay to their most senior ...

Sports Direct – AGM Resolution on Working Practices

Sports Direct (SPD) have received a requistioned resolution for its Annual General Meeting on the 7th September. The resolution which has been put forward by Unite Union and its supporters says: "That the board commissions an independent review of Sports Directs PLC’s human capital management strategy and report back to shareholders within six months." with the supporting comment that "As over 100 shareholders in Sports Direct, we believe the company’s current approach to human capital management will compromise its long-term growth ...

A Bouquet and a Brickbat

ShareSoc's fundamental mission is to improve the landscape for the individual investor in UK shares. One aspect of this is levelling the playing field between individual and institutional investors with respect to access to corporate managements and business strategy presentations. AGMs are a key opportunity for managements to do this, as they are open to all shareholders equally. To that end, ShareSoc has published a guide for companies on how to run AGMs in a shareholder friendly manner (and for attendees on what to ...

Whitbread AGM Report – More Fun Than Lloyds?

The Whitbread Annual General Meeting took place at Church House Conference Centre in Westminster on the 21st June. This was one of the few FTSE-100 AGMs I have attended where the Chairman seemed to pay good attention to the views of private shareholders rather than considering it a tedious 2 hours that had to be suffered. In addition shareholders (and I am a new one) could learn a great deal about the strategy of the company and its affairs from the meeting. ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...