Any Other Business – 25/03
THERE could be some misty eyes over at the CBI’s Centre Point base this week – its staff will be saying goodbye to their home of 30 years and moving to Cannon Street as of next Monday. Board member and former CBI Scotland chair Linda Urquhart sent an emotional tweet yesterday: “Last ever CBI board meeting at Centre Point as @CBItweets moves to Cannon Street. End of an era.” Sniff sniff. Well, at least staff can console themselves with their spanking new offices, which reportedly include a snazzy members’ lounge, coffee shop and exhibition space. And of course they’ll be City A.M.’s neighbours. Win.
ANALYSTS may no longer need to study previous form and consider economics to work out if a company is about to deliver a dreadful annual profit report. If two US academics are to be believed, the AGM invitation could give it all away. Yuanzhi Li and David Yermack have suggested in their paper, Evasive Shareholder Meetings, that companies don’t like to dump bad figures on their own doorstep. “When companies move their annual meetings a great distance from headquarters, they tend to announce disappointing earnings results and experience pronounced stock market underperformance in the months after the meeting,” they opine. Well, it might explain why RBS chose London Fields for its less-than-cheery press conference at the end of last month, during which it announced pre-tax losses of £8.2bn…