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Guidance for UK Boards on Stakeholders

Post Date: October 11, 2017

Review and commentary by Cliff Weight ICSA: The Governance Institute and The Investment Association (IA) have launched guidance to help UK company boards ensure they understand and weigh up the interests of their stakeholders when making strategic decisions. Commentary: My view is • They have recommended 10 principles. Principle number 9 is important -“The board should report to its shareholders on how it has taken the impact on key stakeholders into account when making decisions.” - The Government will introduce legislation to this effect ...

A 6% Yield & Money Back in 2023, What’s Not to Like?

Post Date: October 2, 2017

The answer to the question, in short, is "plenty" IMO. In this era of low interest rates, an investment offering a "guaranteed" 6% yield and return of capital after 6 years may seem appealing, superficially. Investors, however, need to dig a little deeper and examine the strength of that guarantee. This particular investment, being issued on behalf of Select Property Group, came to my attention as it is being offered by one of my brokers, YouInvest (and several other "intermediaries", including Saga Share ...

Performance Related Pay – Does it work? It Depends

Post Date: September 27, 2017

Evidence from Compass-Capita-Comparison shows performance related pay can work - when measured over the long term. Since 2009, Compass has paid Richard Cousins, its CEO, £43m and Capita paid CEO Andy Parker £15m. According to my rough sums (which ignore the impact of the numbers of shares in issue and dividends and capital distributions), Compass added value of £19bn and Capita lost £1.2bn. They started at similar size £6bn and £5bn respectively. The FT story Richard Cousins steps down as Compass chief executive ...

Dual class share structures: threat or opportunity?

Post Date: September 26, 2017

I was interested to read this article in the FT today. It reports that the Hong Kong stock exchange is once more contemplating whether to permit listed companies to have dual class share structures. The exchange has considered this topic several times previously and has historically rejected it and not permitted such structures. In the UK, there isn't an absolute ban but the practice is deprecated and very few companies have such structures, Schroders (SDR/SDRC) being a notable exception. OTOH in ...

ShareDeal Active Nominee Account

Post Date: September 10, 2017

I have (belatedly) decided to register with PrimaryBid and spotted that if I would you like my shares to be settled and delivered to my Stockbroker TD Waterhouse electronically,...