ITV’s Norman blocked from M&B by Lewis
JOE LEWIS, the Tottenham Hotspur owner and billionaire currency trader, has blocked Archie Norman from being appointed as Mitchell & Butlers chairman.
Norman, who hit the headlines earlier this month when he was nominated as ITV’s new chairman, had been in talks to head up the £1bn pub group, which owns the All Bar One and O’Neills brands.
But Lewis, a 23 per cent shareholder in M&B, opposed the move, in another sign that the tycoon is causing strife in the boardroom.
Lewis opposed M&B’s remuneration policy at its annual meeting in January, as well as a proposal to issue new shares, after fears that the board would have diluted his holding if it had been able to issue new shares.
M&B is now on the hunt for a new chairman after Drummond Hall threw in the towel just 18 months into the job. The group has seen a massive board shake-up over the past two years, after chief executive Tim Clarke and finance director Karim Naffah both resigned on the back of an ill-fated foray into financial markets, which cost the group around £500m.
Lewis, who bought his stake from property mogul Robert Tchenguiz, has two representatives on the board, and analysts are increasingly worried that he has too much control, without making a takeover bid.