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Pay at WPP

ShareSoc has issued a press release advising investors to vote against the Remuneration Report at WPP Plc. In particular we think the pay of CEO Sir Martin Sorrell is excessive (£70 million in 2015). See https://www.sharesoc.org/pr79-wpp-remuneration.html for the full press release. This is one of several advisory notices on pay we have issued to ShareSoc Members recently. The previous ones were on Reckitt Benckiser, Anglo American and BP. It is very clear that the reforms to tackle excessive pay introduced by Vince ...

Systems Go to Serve You Better!

Thanks to the generous donations received, we now have sufficient funds to start work on the next phase of ShareSoc’s IT upgrade project. Special “thank you”s go to Leon...

The Restaurant Group AGM Report (RTN)

Today I attended the Annual General Meeting of The Restaurant Group for the first time - held in the City of London at 10.00 am. There were about 50 shareholders present which I was told was slightly more than normal, perhaps because the company seems to be in some turmoil after recent profit warnings and the abrupt departure of the finance director. From being one of those stock market growth stocks on high valuations (share price peaking at over 700p in ...

Pre-Emption Resolutions Likely to Change

Pre-Emption rights are a very positive feature of the UK stock market scene. They prevent companies from issuing shares without existing shareholder consent, except to a limited extent. That avoids excessive dilution without your consent. The Pre-Emption Group sets the guidelines for this voluntary system which generally means that for larger companies 5% is the limit without getting a shareholder vote in favour. A resolution to cover this for the next year is on most AGM agendas. The Pre-Emption Group have ...

Alliance Trust AGM

I was unfortunately unable to travel to the Alliance Trust AGM in Dundee as I hoped to do because of a medical problem, but here is a report from Jim Cook: Alliance Trust 2016 AGM, Dundee, 6th May 2016 The AGM was well attended with around 300 shareholders represented. In his opening remarks Lord Smith explained why he had accepted the Chairmanship. Firstly, the company faced challenges.  Secondly, what needed to be done had been identified.  Thirdly, a plan was in place.  Lord ...