All the union news that's fit to blog...
One of the books I’ve read over the holiday period is Gigged by Sarah Kessler. It’s a quick read, nicely written and manages to get across some important points.
First up, if you’re reading the book from labour-oriented perspective you may find the st…Read more…
A couple of stories caught my eye over the last few days, both relating to the ownership of infrastructure.
The first piece is from the FT and looks at the dividends paid to the owners of the UK’s airports. This contrasts the amounts paid to sharehol…Read more…
As most people will be aware, the revised UK Corporate Governance Code kicks in next year, and an important element of it relates to “employee voice”. At the risk of overstating things, the change in the Code is significant as, for the first time in it…Read more…
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Update on my update: I’m reliably informed that other data sources suggest the actual total short position in Kier Group is more than double that in the FCA list. Interserve 50% higher than the totals on the FCA list.
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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…
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…
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’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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…