Following on from Kier Group (and Carillion, of course) it looks like Interserve is facing some serious financial pressure. According to the FT there are “rescue” talks underway that involve a debt for equity swap that would largely wipe out existing s…Read more…
Capita recruits employee directors
Just a “workers on boards” nugget, but Capita has announced it is seeking to recruit two employee directors. You can read the press blurb here or the story in the Times here.
When I dug around a bit I discovered that this had actually been announ…Read more…
Major shareholder turns against Ryanair board
Just a quickie, but I spotted last week that Baillie Gifford had voted against the re-election of both David Bonderman (chair) and Kyran McLaughlin (SID) at the Ryanair AGM in September.
Why does that matter? Because Baillie Gifford is a large (4%) a…Read more…
Kier Group in trouble
Kier Group’s shares took a nosedive on Friday afternoon, after the company announced a £250m rights issue intended to pay down its debt. The background to this, according to Kier Group, is a mixture of lenders pulling back from the construction sector,…Read more…
Sports Direct – Mike Ashley’s declining popularity
Perhaps others spotted this at the time, but I just realised that Mike Ashley saw a very sizeable vote against his re-election at the most recent Sports Direct AGM.
On the headline vote he walked it with a vote against of just under 10%, or 44m shares…Read more…
Chief execs, incentives and discounting
A quick plug for Are chief executives overpaid? by Deborah Hargreaves, formerly of the High Pay Centre. Spoiler alert: the answer is YES.
The book is a quick run through what top pay looks like, why it has changed and grown, some of the attempts …Read more…
Voting different ways on the same stock
There’s always a danger that a) if pension funds delegate voting rights to asset managers and b) if they appoint multiple asset managers then they may end up voting different ways on the same stock.
Googling around for something completely different t…Read more…
Union research shows support for Ryanair chairman even lower than reported
Union research shows support for Ryanair chairman even lower than reportedShareholder support for Ryanair chairman David Bonderman at the company’s recent AGM was even lower than reported, new research by trade union groups shows.29/10/2018The Internat…Read more…
What comes next?
I think that the outlines of a future corporate governance model for the UK are increasingly clear. Whilst I’m a long-term, strong proponent of such a change, I think the range of voices in favour is a good indication that it is likely. In very broad t…Read more…
Patisserie Holdings
Just a couple of bits of info relating to Patisserie Holdings – the company behind Patisserie Valerie.
I had a quick look at filings to see if there was anything of note. One interesting disclosure is this TR1 notice showing that back in April Blackro…Read more…
Workers on boards round-up
Just a quick round-up of some news that relates to the issue of worker representation on boards. I think the fact that there is quite a bit is indicative of the shift in thinking that is going on.
1. This is old, but I had totally missed it. Mears Gro…Read more…
Legal & General vs workers on boards
A little bit of news about workers on boards (or the lack of them) in the UK. Legal & General is the first big PLC that I have seen set out how it will address workforce engagement.
Perhaps no big surprise, but they have adopted the nominated NED …Read more…
Just one more thing about Ryanair….
I can see that there were at least a couple of asset managers that did not vote against either David Bonderman as chairman or Kryan McLaughlin as senior independent director. And reasons given for this are that they expect the company to make changes a…Read more…
Elon Musk and the SEC
This week has seen reality start to catch up with Elon Musk’s Twitter feed. Earlier in the year he famously tweeted that he had “Funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share. This was something of a shock to external shareholders, analysts, t…Read more…
Meade on property
This seems pretty relevant today – a small snippet from Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property that addresses the need to think about ownership of property in addition to taxation when looking at inequality.
“(i) If, in the automated world…Read more…
Labour’s mini Meidner plan
It’s been an interesting day for those of us on the Left with an interest in issues of governance and ownership. At Labour conference it has been announced that a future Labour government would both mandate that workers form a third of the board o…Read more…
Ryanair AGM in charts…
Just a bit of fun, but I’ve put together a few bits and pieces that put the vote on David Bonderman’s re-election of chair of Ryanair in context.
To calculate the stats I’ve used the full AGM results distributed by the company, and stripped out Bonder…Read more…
Ryanair: Airline Getting Battered
Yesterday was Ryanair’s AGM, which I attended on behalf of the ITF. The two major stories ahead of the meeting – sizeable investor unrest focused on the board, and labour relations – have merged into one, with a particular focus on chairman David Bonde…Read more…
Ryanair AGM
As most people will be aware, Ryanair has its AGM this week, and there is quite a bit of interest in what might happen, particularly in relation to the chairman.
These things are impossible to call in advance. The only thing we really know is the base…Read more…
Unions call for Ryanair chairman to go
ITF and ETF call for new Ryanair chairmanThe International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) are calling for shareholders to oppose the re-election of Ryanair chairman David Bonderman and overhaul the …Read more…