MPs to launch new investigation into excessive boardroom pay September 15, 2016 MPs will launch a wide-ranging review into executive pay tomorrow after prime minister Theresa May promised to get tough on the country's top paid bosses. The Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Committee will unveil the terms of a corporate governance inquiry tomorrow, which will look at the issue of what to do about runaway executive pay [...]
Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct needs a solid gameplan to rise from the ashes September 14, 2016 Sports Direct is back in the news, this time for what should be more positive reasons than their other recent appearances. We have covered how consumer perception of the brand has fallen over the past year as investigations uncovered damaging practices within the organisation. This culminated in owner Mike Ashley’s appearance in front of a select [...]
Full separation of BT’s infrastructure arm Openreach is not “off the table” – Bradley September 13, 2016 BT has been dealt a blow just months after the telecoms group escaped its infrastructure arm Openreach being hived off by the regulator. Karen Bradley – the culture, media, and sport secretary – warned BT that Openreach could still be split out to a separate company despite Ofcom’s proposals to leave it under the BT [...]
BIS committee chair urges Mike Ashley to leave employment agency Transline Group behind September 13, 2016 Iain Wright, the chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) select committee is pushing Sports Direct's founder Mike Ashley to ditch Transline Group, the agency that supplies workers for his Shirebrook warehouse. The BIS committee said in a report on the working practices at Shirebrook that Transline Group had been misleading in evidence given during [...]
JD Sports warns Brexit may cause “headwinds on margin” next year September 13, 2016 JD Sports' share price has hit a record high after the company reported a jump in profits today — but the retailer has warned that the fall in sterling could cause some headwinds next year. The figures Pre-tax profits for the sports fashion retailer grew by 66 per cent for the 26 weeks to 20 July, reaching £77.4m as [...]
The Investor Forum doesn’t want any more “quick fixes” from Sports Direct September 9, 2016 Influential shareholder group the Investor Forum has said today that Sports Direct "can't have any more quick fixes" in its bid to reform its corporate governance. Phineas Glover, senior adviser at the Investor Forum, said a meeting with Sports Direct's founder Mike Ashley on Wednesday – after the company's AGM – was the "frankest exchange of views [...]
Nearly three per cent of UK workers have reported they are now on a zero-hours contract September 8, 2016 Almost three per cent of the UK's workforce has reported being employed on a zero-hours contract basis in their main job, according to new figures. Data released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the number of people on zero-hours contracts, which do not guarantee staff a certain number of hours' work, rose by [...]
Sports Direct chairman Keith Hellawell tells City A.M.: “My past is dealing with child murderers, I don’t have a problem saying no in board meetings” September 8, 2016 As Mike Ashley stood sweating under the lights of TV cameras in Sports Direct’s warehouse yesterday, he urged journalists to allow investors some room. Everyone wore high-visibility jackets, but the shareholders were relatively hard to see. The company’s founder had no real intention of listening to investors, though; he was just keen to manage the [...]
Investors vote against the re-election of chairman Keith Hellawell to the board of Sports Direct September 7, 2016 Sports Direct's investors have said today they want to see the company's chairman kicked off the board. The vote comes after the business said they would be keeping Keith Hellawell as chairman, despite saying they would listen more to investors. He offered his resignation, but the board would not accept it. On the vote, non-executive [...]
Sports Direct investors vote against chair Keith Hellawell’s re-election as he vows to leave next year if he fails to win over shareholders September 7, 2016 Investors in troubled British retailer Sports Direct today voted against the re-election of chairman Keith Hellawell as chairman of the board – but he's not in any rush to leave. Hellawell said he will step down next year if he does not receive the backing of independent shareholders at the 2017 annual general meeting (AGM), after 53 [...]