Flybe infected by aviation sector’s malaise March 6, 2020 As ministerial tweets go, the mid-January proclamation by the business and transport secretaries that Flybe’s future had been salvaged will surely endure as among the most ill-judged of Boris Johnson’s government. Barely 54 days later, Flybe has become just another corporate carcass, joining Monarch and Thomas Cook among the airlines which failed to cope with [...]
Pension funds usher in new voting climate February 21, 2020 Libor settlements, the use of Mervyn King’s eyebrow to fire a chief executive, a boss embroiled in a whistleblowing scandal: Barclays is used to finding itself cast as the City’s guinea pig. Shareaction’s climate change resolution, to be voted on at the bank’s annual general meeting in May, is the latest example. The pressure group [...]
Listed firms need public flogging January 31, 2020 The £18.5 trillion in assets managed by members of the Investor Forum would cover a fair few shopping trips to Poundland, and buy its parent’s shares hundreds of times over — but will public market shareholders get the chance? That’s one of the questions indirectly prompted by the forum’s latest annual review, which highlights the [...]
Flybe rescue secrecy is absurd January 17, 2020 So much for open government. It shouldn’t be too much to expect the ministry responsible for the public finances to disclose the potential liability to taxpayers of a private company bailout. Yet in the Treasury’s statement about the government-backed rescue of the regional airline Flybe this week, there was scant detail and even fewer numbers. [...]
Ted Baker needs a dose of urgent first aid December 13, 2019 Oh, the irony. David Bernstein was in Switzerland in his capacity as chairman of the British Red Cross when he took a phone call ousting him as chairman of Ted Baker on Monday evening. Forget the Red Cross: it’s the fashion retailer which requires emergency aid. In the nine months since founder Ray Kelvin quit [...]
Investors should restrict ire over pay deals November 29, 2019 Talk about picking your moment. Provoking a pay row with your shareholders in the middle of a General Election campaign in which the Labour party has zeroed in on income inequality looks crass — so Bovis Homes Group’s executives shouldn’t be surprised if a few arrows are fired in their direction by would-be MPs early [...]
Galliford Try joins the Winters of discontent October 31, 2019 Standard Chartered, Lloyds Banking Group, Aviva and BT Group: even the Investment Association (IA) must have been surprised by the rich seam of targets it uncovered when it launched a campaign to curb the lavish pension perks enjoyed by the chief executives of listed companies. A quarter of FTSE 100 bosses have seen their pension [...]
BP drills closer to home than Tesco for new CEO October 4, 2019 If the benchmark for CEO succession planning is to have a slate of credible internal candidates ready to take the helm when a veteran boss retires, this week’s news suggests that BP deserves plaudits and Tesco brickbats. In reality, the situation at the two companies is more nuanced, but both the impending departures of Bob [...]
M&S’s FTSE exit is a symbol of its terminal decline September 6, 2019 Archie Norman, the Marks & Spencer chairman, put a brave face this week on the retailer’s demotion from the FTSE 100. Nothing to see here, he said: the business was exactly the same on the day after its relegation. Focusing on it was the reddest of herrings. In a sense, he is right – but [...]
The world’s local bank has a new boss on its doorstep August 9, 2019 It is just 4.3 miles from One Canada Square, HSBC Holdings’ headquarters, to 20 Gresham Street, the home of Lloyds Banking Group. How fitting, then, that “the world’s local bank” should have no further to look than its near-neighbour for its next chief executive. Mark Tucker, HSBC’s chairman, cautioned this week that his search for [...]
