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Hard Hitting BEIS Report on Corporate Governance and Pay

The BEIS Commons Select Committee have today published a strongly worded report on Corporate Governance after its recent hearings on the subject. Here are some of the key points they make: They agree with the Prime Minister that high levels of executive pay need to be tackled "for the benefit of society as a whole". They forcefully recommend that Long Term Incentive Plans (LTIPs) should be abolished as soon as possible because they create perverse incentives and are often a way ...

Imagination Technologies – And Why You Should Avoid Such Companies

Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) announced yesterday that Apple, it's largest customer, had notified it that they plan to stop using IMG's technology in future products. Apple represents more than 50% of IMG's revenue and the share price promptly fell by 62%. IMG provides Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) to Apple who have apparently been developing alternative solutions, possibly with the assistance of former IMG employees. IMG suggested that Apple would likely be infringing its patents or other intellectual property so that suggests that ...

Response to FSCS Consultation

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) pays out if you have lost money as a result of an authorised financial services firm going bust or otherwise being unable to pay compensation for various failings - for example a bank or stockbroker. The scheme is funded by a levy on services firms. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA has recently undertaken a public consultation on changes to the scheme. ShareSoc has submitted a response giving our views on behalf of our Members. At present ...

FT Article on RBS and Shareholder Committees

The Financial Times have published an article under the headline "Investors fight RBS snub to shareholder committee move". It covers the battle by ShareSoc to get the Royal Bank of Scotland to accept a resolution for their AGM to appoint a Shareholder Committee. See the ShareSoc campaign web page here for more explanation of the benefits of such a Committee and how RBS are currently thwarting shareholder democracy: https://www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/rbs/. One of the supporters of this concept to improve corporate governance and reign in ...

A Divorce Invoked and a Marriage Cancelled

Spring may be in the air but love is definitely not. As expected, Mrs May has issued a letter to the EU invoking Article 50. So the Brexit process is now commenced and we may be out in a couple of years. The UK stock market has of course discounted this already although there is some uncertainty about what the future impact will be. It depends a lot on the trade deal that can be negotiated. The other big item of news ...