AGM

RBS Rejects Democracy

ShareSoc has today issued the following press release: The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rejected a requisition to implement a Shareholder Committee. ShareSoc will not permit this unreasonable...

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,...

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 ...

The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism – BHS and National Grid

The extraction by Sir Philip Green of £300m from BHS, which led to the business going into decline and leaving the company pension scheme under-funded before he sold it for a £1 to an unqualified chancer was strongly criticised by a select committee of the House of Commons yesterday. To quote from their report: "The tragedy is that those who have lost out are the ordinary employees and pensioners. This is the unacceptable face of capitalism". This echoes the comments of Ted ...

Brexit Result Impact and Tesco AGM

The result is in, and the people have spoken. We will now leave the EU, unless of course there is some more re-negotiation or other fudge which would probably require some U-turns by politicians. They are of course adept at finessing such manoeuvres so don't be surprised if the outcome is not quite as simple as it might first appear. The pound has already fallen substantially (I am writing this just before the stock market opened). Is that a disaster? Not quite ...

WPP Pay and AGM Report

So 33% of investors in WPP voted against Sir Martin Sorrell's pay package of £70 million for last year at yesterday's AGM which made him the highest paid FTSE CEO. That has been reported in the financial media as indicating strong dissatisfaction with the figure, but surely the really astonishing aspect is that obviously 66% voted in favour (and that's ignoring the abstentions). It seems 66% of the mainly institutional voters think that pay at that level is perfectly reasonable! Or perhaps ...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

Persimmon AGM and Remuneration

On the same day as BP held its Annual General Meeting (AGM), and got snubbed by shareholders over its Remuneration Report, house building company Persimmon held its AGM in York. One might have expected that Persimmon would also have been attacked for its remuneration scheme, for the reasons explained below, but in reality it passed with only 9% of votes against. Indeed there was more opposition to the election of a new non-executive director, Nigel Mills, who only passed with 53% ...