Activism

Vodafone defeats rebels at AGM

Vodafone has successfully repelled activist shareholders seeking to have the company demerge its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless, with only 4.6% of shareholders who voted supporting the proposal.

However, the mobile phone company did suffer a significant opposition vote against the re-election of Michael Boskin as a non-executive director. Boskin received the backing of only 75.75% of shareholders that voted, which Manifest research has found to be the highest opposition vote against a FTSE 100 director this year.

Boskin served as a director of AirTouch from August 1996 to June 1999, and joined the board of Vodafone on completion of the merger with AirTouch Communications in June 1999. Boskin’s aggregate length of service therefore spans over nine years, and as such is considered a relevant independence issue under the Combined Code.

Activist shareholder Efficient Capital Structures tabled resolutions seeking to have Vodafone give investors shares reflecting the company’s 45% stake in US firm Verizon Wireless, and increase the amount of debt on its balance sheet in order to allow it to return more cash to shareholders. This latter resolution was also defeated, winning just over 3% shareholder support.

August 2007