CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 23, 2012 Freshfields Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the law firm, has appointed Silvia Paternain as head of its global tax practice. She succeeds Colin Hargreaves, who is returning to focus on client work full time. Paternain joined the firm in 1998 and was elected to the partnership in 2004. She specialises in corporate cross-border transactions. Sirius Minerals The [...]
No more rewards for failure – how to claw back pay May 23, 2012 ONE by one, companies with either sub-par performance or poor compensation plans have been brought to account by shareholders. The most spectacular of these was at Aviva where Andrew Moss, recently stood down, but there have been major revolts at William Hill, Pendragon and Trinity Mirror. All of this has been achieved without one bit [...]
Tesco’s Philip Clarke waives annual bonus May 22, 2012 PHILIP CLARKE, Tesco’s chief executive, said he would forgo his £372,000 annual bonus after the retailer’s weak UK performance last year prompted its first profit warning in 20 years. “I decided at the beginning of the year that I would decline my annual bonus for 2012,” Clarke said in a statement yesterday. “I wasn’t satisfied [...]
One in ten investors reject Shell pay deal May 22, 2012 OIL giant Royal Dutch Shell yesterday suffered an embarrassing investor rebellion when 9.1 per cent of its shareholders voted against its executive pay deal, up from two per cent a year before. Chief executive Peter Voser earned €11.7m (£9.5m) for 2011, double what he took home for the previous year, despite little improvement in the company’s [...]
Brewin’s top of the league at Chelsea May 22, 2012 CITY investment management firm Brewin Dolphin’s garden at the Chelsea Flower Show has won a gold medal for being the best in the show, which is great news for those participating in the firm’s online charity auction. The auction, which will raise funds to help the fight against leukaemia, includes a prize that gives the [...]
Tesco chief turns down £372,000 bonus May 22, 2012 Tesco boss Philip Clarke has opted not to take an annual bonus of about £372,000 following a poor performance by the world’s third-biggest retailer in its main British market. Shares in Tesco, which issued a shock profit warning in January, have lost almost a quarter of their value this year and the company is now [...]
Shell could be next victim of anti-pay vote May 20, 2012 ROYAL Dutch Shell, which holds its general meeting tomorrow, could be the next victim of the investor revolution that is sweeping through City boardrooms. Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (Pirc) has urged shareholders to vote against the oil giant’s remuneration report, which more than doubled Shell chief executive Peter Voser’s total pay to £9.4m in [...]
Evidence of revolt at every single level May 20, 2012 THE shareholder spring has sprung. Since proxy season started, we’ve become accustomed to the sight of investors giving directors a bloody nose. I’ve decided to crunch the numbers to see just how rebellious the buy side has become. A win is a win. Just three firms have been voted down at their annual meetings in [...]
Aviva will take rest of year to find new CEO May 17, 2012 AVIVA yesterday admitted it will take the rest of 2012 to find a new chief executive, as it announced it had seen a five per cent drop in life insurance sales for the first quarter. Andrew Moss, the insurer’s former boss, last week became the highest-profile casualty of the shareholder spring when he quit after [...]
Aviva sales fall May 17, 2012 Insurer Aviva said the search for a new chief executive would take the rest of the year as it reported a 5 percent drop in life insurance sales, reflecting tough conditions in its key European markets. The insurer, whose CEO Andrew Moss quit last week amid investor discontent over its underperforming shares, had long term [...]