Shareholders are on the money in scrutinising pay May 7, 2012 AS LITTLE as a decade ago, few City-watchers would have cared all that much about the April AGM deluge, but not any more. In rising markets, short-term investors and speculators could ignore the niceties of shareholder democracy and vote with their feet. Several crashes later and investor uncertainty is manifesting itself through the ballot box, [...]
Easter eager to lock horns with Powell and guarantee top spot May 3, 2012 Q What happened the last time you played Sale in the Aviva Premiership? A I was at the World Cup last time but I know we won 48-41. I won money off Mark Cueto as we had a bet on the outcome but he still hasn’t paid up so I’ll ask him to show me [...]
REVOLUTION IN THE CITY May 3, 2012 SHAREHOLDERS yesterday unleashed their wrath on leading blue chip businesses with an unprecedented wave of rebellion against executive pay deals. Businesses including Aviva, UBS and Inmarsat suffered substantial rebellions against remuneration packages at AGMs held yesterday. And last night Trinity Mirror boss Sly Bailey unexpectedly handed in her notice as leading shareholders prepared to mount a [...]
City pay revolt: Long live this most capitalist of revolutions May 3, 2012 OFF with their heads: the message from shareholders is becoming louder and angrier by the day. “Listen to us”, they are rightly telling company boards, “you work for us. We pay you. Stop behaving as if you own the place.” And that’s exactly the point: CEOs are merely shareholders’ paid hands. The real capitalists are [...]
Who are the rebels? May 3, 2012 BEFORE yesterday only three FTSE 100 firms had seen their remuneration reports rejected in the nine years since shareholders gained the right to vote on such matters. But the rebellion by Aviva shareholders shows the growing tendency for major institutional investors to take an interest in executive pay. The identity of voters was secret, yet [...]
Shareholder revolts don’t get much worse than this May 3, 2012 IT DOESN’T get much bigger than this. Fifty-nine per cent of shareholders refused to back Aviva’s remuneration report yesterday, either by voting against it (50 per cent) or abstaining (nine per cent). Of those who cast a ballot, 54 per cent voted against. To illustrate how bad this is for Aviva, we need to put [...]
SHARE PRICE FALLS THAT GOT INVESTORS WORRIED May 3, 2012 TRINITY MIRROR Shares have plunged more than 90 per cent in the 10 years since Sly Bailey took charge of the company. The group owns the Daily Mirror plus more than 100 regional newspapers – but has a market cap of just £82m. AVIVA Investors are angry because the insurer’s shares have fallen 58 per [...]
BAFTA’S PICCADILLY HEADQUARTERS FOR SALE May 2, 2012 BAFTA’S landmark headquarters on Piccadilly are to be put up for sale for £76m. Aviva Investors Property Trust has instructed property consultancy Knight Frank to sell the 81,000 square foot building known as Princes House, which is also home to the Princes Arcade, the Tramp nightclub, a screening room, casino and three-storey town house.
FTSE edges up as Lloyds gains May 1, 2012 The FTSE 100 clawed back some lost ground in early trading with Lloyds among the top gainers after quarterly results that matched forecasts. London’s blue-chip index ended April in negative territory yesterday – its second consecutive monthly loss – as concerns rose over Spain’s economy and political tensions in Europe took their toll. Meanwhile UK [...]
Investors force Aviva boss to reject pay rise April 30, 2012 ACTIVIST shareholders yesterday claimed victory after the boss of Britain’s second biggest insurer was forced into a humiliating climbdown on the size of his pay packet. Andrew Moss, chief executive of Aviva, decided to waive his 2012 salary increase as part of a review of the firm’s executive pay policy, launched in response to pressure [...]