Activism Archives

Shell audit conflict raises eyebrows at Standard Life

…as the UK’s Financial Reporting Council finalises auditor rules

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published final drafts of the latest UK corporate governance code and the associated guidance on audit committees so they will meet the requirements of forthcoming …

BP, Smith & Newphew AGM season blow out

The 2016 AGM season started with major defeats for two FTSE100 companies. Last Thursday (14th April) oil giant BP and medical equipments supplier, Smith & Nephew saw their remuneration reports rejected by shareholders at their AGMs. At the BP AGM …

Shareholders call for companies to respond to environmental concerns

Investors vote on the first of three shareholder resolutions proposed at Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Glencore AGMs this week calling for reporting by these mining companies into how they are managing carbon emissions and investing in low-carbon energy research …

Railpen’s Head of Corporate Governance Retires

Railpen veteran, Frank Curtiss, who was most recently been its head of corporate governance, has retired. The pension fund has been at the forefront of active institutional investment and was one of the first to vote actively on its equity …

UK Financial Reporting Council pre-AGM alert to investors on company reporting

The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has written to institutional investors highlighting the key issues they should be considering ahead of the peak season of company shareholder meetings.

The letter from Stephen Hadrill, FRC chief executive, reminded investors that this …

ShareAction judges autoenrolment sustainability credentials

As automatic-enrolment workplace pensions are rolled out to more employees UK pressure group, ShareAction, which campaigns to achieve ‘an investment system that truly serves savers and communities, and protects our environment for the long term’, has produced its first …

Australia moves to kill off show of hands for AGM voting

Shareholders in Australian companies are now more likely to have their votes taken on a poll by default instead of the traditional show of hands. Two-thirds of companies targeted by a global collaborative investor initiative have moved towards using polls, …

Easygroup’s Stelios steps in to call Fastjet EGM

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has used Easygroup’s, 12.6% stake in African no-frills airline, Fastjet, to call an extraordinary meeting (EGM) which seeks to remove its chief executive, Ed Winter, and its general counsel and company secretary, Krista Bates.

The EGM resolutions …

Institutional investors accused of not doing enough to curb excessive US CEO pay

Leading mutual funds and pension funds so far have taken little action to curb the pay of chief executives (CEOs) in the US according to a report by As You Sow, a non-profit organisation that promotes environmental and social corporate …

Investors seek improved proxy access at Apple

Activist investors in the US were watching the outcome of shareholder resolutions at the annual general meeting (AGM) of technology giant, Apple, on Friday (26th February). One of the proposals was seeking greater powers for investors to be able to …