Persimmon seeks to blame proxy advisors for NED’s slim majority Construction firm, Persimmon, faced significant opposition in the vote to elect Nigel Mills as one their non-executive directors. There was a 47% vote against Mills’ appointment, due to independence concerns, at the company’s AGM last week, one of the slimmest margins for a director appointment for some […]
Read MoreLeading 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 responsibility through shareholder advocacy. The report identifies the S&P 500 CEOs which its believes are the 100 most overpaid […]
Read MoreAnalysis of the proxy voting at Russell 3000 company meetings last year found that 61 companies (2.8%) failed in achieving at least 50% support for their say on pay votes which have been compulsory in the US since 2011, according to pay consultants Semler Brossy. Looking at the number of companies that ‘failed’ their say on […]
Read MoreThe founder of the Easy group of companies, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, used his 49% stake in easyHotel, to vote against the company’s directors’ remuneration report leading to a majority opposing the resolution to approve the report at its recent AGM. Votes on the other resolutions were withheld. Haji-Ioannou is the largest shareholder in the Aim-listed company. A statement from […]
Read MoreIt’s being quite a few days for corporate governance. First, the unprecedented (at least since our records began in 1996) shock yesterday of Sir John Bond’s ejection as Chair of Glencore Xstrata, whilst in the same week, the PR chicanery currently being played out in the US ahead of JPMorgan’s AGM next week over the question of whether the Chair and Chief Executive […]
Read MorePerhaps the two least surprising observations about last week’s local government elections in the UK were the weakness of the incumbent national government party vote, and the continued fall in turnout. If there’s one thing you can rely on, it’s that generally people don’t understand why local government is important to them and therefore don’t […]
Read MoreOne of the suggestions made by Vince Cable when answering his parliamentary question in the House of Commons yesterday in relation to his proposals to address executive pay, was that the remuneration report may be subject to a higher support threshold than currently. This has some echoes of Australia’s two-strikes rule, which states that if […]
Read MoreAn analysis by Manifest of voting trends on the remuneration report since its introduction in 2003 has revealed the FTSE 100 companies with the greatest level of shareholder dissatisfaction, on average, over the period. The list includes some companies where there has been one very large dissenting vote, but the more interesting companies are perhaps […]
Read MoreOne of the questions faced by investors when considering say on pay votes is whether the payout is appropriate. While salary may be easily compared against peers, assessing how appropriate the bonus is may not be so straightforward. To try to get a clearer perspective on such a hot topic, Manifest teamed up with Swiss research organisation, Obermatt, in an […]
Read MoreJust what is the most appropriate level of executive pay and what is the best approach to aligning interests between executives and shareholders? This little gem of an extract comes from a submission to Australia’s Productivity Commission made in 2009 by Ian Crichton of CRA Plan Managers, a remuneration consultant, may provide some insight. “I […]
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