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Persimmon Directors, IDOX Profit Warning and Transplants

This morning house building company Persimmon announced that Chairman Nicholas Wrigley and Non-Exec Director Jonathan Davie were departing. The company says that both of them recognise that the 2012 LTIP “could have included a cap” and “in recognition of this omission” they have tendered their resignations. Holders of Persimmon shares like me, or indeed anyone who has followed the debate on excessive executive pay, will be aware of the outrageous pay that has resulted at this and other companies because of the ...

RBS Campaign Update 9 – Progress as at 13/12/2017

If you have not yet joined the campaign you can still do so, please click here to download the forms https://www.sharesoc.org/rbs-agm-2018-requisitions/ . EMAIL 1 sent out on 24 Nov 2017 and 80 new campaign members recruited. Resolution and Request for discussion finalised. Click here to see them. EMAIL 2 sent out on 9 Dec 2017 to all campaign members asking them to sign the forms and return them to us. 30 received so far. We need at least 100 ...

Stale Directors and the UK Corporate Governance Code

One interesting fact highlighted by the Financial Times today was the impact of the proposed new UK Corporate Governance Code on company Chairmen. It pointed out that the change in the Code to limit the length of service of directors will include their time as Chairmen and will mean dozens of long-standing Chairmen may need to retire. The FT suggests 67 FTSE-100 chairmen will be affected, and there will be another 48 chairmen of FTSE-250 companies according to an analysis by the ...

Further on the FRC and its Report on the HBOS Audit

Roger’s blog makes a number of hard hitting points about the FRC. However, there are some promising actions which indicate change is happening at the FRC. The meeting with the FRC and ShareSoc and UKSA members on 21 November was most helpful in establishing a good working relationship with the FRC. There are promising signs that the FRC want to work closely with us and we have been asked to put representatives onto a number of their committees and working groups. More ...

Brexit, HBOS, Globo and the FRC

Is it not heartening that the Brexit divorce bill, and other terms, have been settled? The exact cost is unclear but it could be up to £40 billion – a lot of money you may say! However, the fact that the key negotiators, Mrs May, Barnier et al, all looked somewhat glum about the deal when announced perhaps tells us that it was a compromise in which both sides had to concede ground. Or perhaps they were just tired. The terms ...