Amongst its recently-announced proposed package of banking reforms, the UK Labour party has suggested that claw-back on bankers’ bonuses should be extended to ten years from the date of payment. With effect from 1 January this year, the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulatory Authority imposed a mandatory claw-back period of seven years from the date of … Continue Reading
In the last couple of weeks the first few FTSE100 AGMs have been held. Imperial Tobacco, Aberdeen Asset Management and Compass Group all received votes in favour of more than 90% for their implementation reports. As mentioned in our previous blog post, Aberdeen Asset Management is proving to be the exception by sticking with last … Continue Reading
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) recently released its first stand-alone UK and Ireland Proxy Voting Guidelines (previously, ISS and the NAPF issued guidelines through Research Recommendations and Electronic Voting, their joint venture which came to an end in June 2014). The guidelines apply to shareholder meetings held on or after 1 February 2015. In the area of … Continue Reading
Compass Group and Imperial Tobacco published their DRRs last week, giving their shareholders something to read over the festive period. Both companies are putting their policy reports up to a vote again at their AGMs on 5 February and 28 January respectively, due to amending their policies slightly. The notion that most policies will only … Continue Reading
On 18 December, the GC100 and Investor Group published an eagerly awaited update to its Guidance on DRRs. The update follows the GC100’s review of its original Guidance (which was released in September 2013) in light of the 2014 AGM season and recent developments, and notes that the update document should now be regarded as … Continue Reading
The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has re-issued its updated Corporate Governance Policy and Voting Guidelines, including its view of how remuneration should be dealt with. Unsurprisingly, changes have been made to the last set of guidelines issued in November 2013. The changes reflect experience over the first year of accounts published under the … Continue Reading
Last week, the final FTSE100 AGM of the first season under the new UK DRR rules was held – and the first two DRRs to be published as part of the second season were released. And so the cycle begins again… AGM The last FTSE100 AGM of the previous season to be held was that … Continue Reading
BG Group has responded to the numerous reports and opinions that have surrounded its proposed remuneration package to the new CEO, Helge Lund. Less than 24 hours after our blog post which summarised the concerns, BG Group’s announcement, dated 1 December 2014, sets out revisions to the remuneration package and is stated to follow “extensive … Continue Reading
Last Tuesday, the penultimate FTSE100 AGM of the 2013/14 DRR season was held. Wolseley was untroubled and received votes in favour of 93.6% for its policy report and 98.4% for its implementation report. There is now only one FTSE100 AGM left; Associated British Foods’ AGM will be held this Friday (5 December). Results of all … Continue Reading
As all of the FTSE100 DRRs for the past season have now been released (see our blog post), we are in the midst of the final few FTSE100 AGMs. This past week has seen Smiths Group, BHP Billiton and BSkyB all hold their AGMs, with no contentious DRR votes to report. For completeness, the voting … Continue Reading
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has admitted defeat in his effort to overturn EU legislation that caps bankers’ bonuses, after an opinion issued by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) comprehensively dismissed the UK’s arguments that the rules are illegal. The government’s case concerned the CRD IV package of legislation which was … Continue Reading
With the release of Associated British Foods’ Directors’ Remuneration Report on 4 November 2014, the final curtain has come down on the 2013-14 FTSE100 DRR season. Whilst we still await the AGMs (and therefore shareholders’ votes on the DRRs) of a handful of FTSE100 companies (namely Smiths Group, BHP Billiton, BSkyB, Wolseley and ABF itself), … Continue Reading
The topic of directors’ remuneration is coming back onto the horizon for one last time this season following a quiet month. During the last fortnight DRRs were published, AGMs were held and the IMA updated its Principles of Remuneration. So, with just one DRR yet to be published and four UK AGMs still to be … Continue Reading
Well, not quite. Following the merger of the investment affairs division of the ABI and the Investment Management Association in June this year we now have the IMA Principles of Remuneration. So has the new name brought with it significant changes to the expectations of shareholders represented by the newly merged advisory bodies? Thankfully, the … Continue Reading
As the dust settles on the eagerly awaited HMRC v Martin decision (see our previous blog post), thoughts are inevitably turning to how that decision impacts on an employer’s approach to clawback payments, particularly in the world of variable remuneration. Whilst the judge in the Martin decision was clear that his conclusion turned on the … Continue Reading
The pressure for companies and firms to claw back earnings paid to executives under various incentive plans has been steadily growing over the last couple of years. There was the clarification in the ABI guidelines on directors’ remuneration on which we reported last November, to PIRC’s two penn’orth on the topic in March, the Bank … Continue Reading
Following the first week of any notable activity in the world of FTSE100 DRRs and AGMs for a while (see our previous blog post), last week saw another couple of FTSE100 30 June year-end companies release their DRRs. After a quiet summer, it appears that the world of executive remuneration is slowly but surely getting … Continue Reading
The world of executive remuneration enjoyed a brief flurry of activity last week as an AGM was held, an updated version of the Corporate Governance Code was published and the NAPF also published its report on the 2014 FTSE350 AGM season. Despite widespread rumours of a shareholder revolt in the national press, both aspects of … Continue Reading
After an eventful 2014 AGM season, the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has published its 2014 AGM Season Report in respect of the FTSE350. This second annual NAPF Report looks back at the AGM season just gone in advance of the update to the NAPF’s Corporate Governance Policy & Voting Guidelines. Commenting briefly on … Continue Reading
The Financial Reporting Council announced on 17 September the release of the updated version of the Corporate Governance Code, after its consultation in April about proposed amendments to the sections on remuneration. There has been a good deal of shuffling sentences about, but there are two main changes that will need to be taken into account by companies for … Continue Reading
On Wednesday afternoon we were treated to the latest and, for this year at least, final instalment in the saga of Sports Direct’s remuneration policy, as it played out at the AGM. Contrary to at least one press article, there were no fireworks but the results certainly are worth looking at. The important votes from … Continue Reading
Earlier this year, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. released its Governance QuickScore 2.0 data verification portal (see our March Post). It has recently announced the launch of another portal giving all U.S. public companies that have an equity-based compensation plan listed on their proxy ballot for shareholder approval the opportunity to verify the data regarding such … Continue Reading
After a quiet couple of weeks, last week two FTSE100 companies released their DRRs, namely Diageo and Sports Direct. Sports Direct’s DRR has been eagerly awaited following recent controversy over its 2015 Bonus Share Plan (see our blog post on its introduction and our blog post on Mike Ashley’s involvement in the plan). The next … Continue Reading
It’s summer for our readers in the Northern Hemisphere – so time for a seasonal break. After a very busy and interesting 8 months watching FTSE100s wrestle with their DRRs under the new UK regulations, it’s time for them and us to take a well-deserved break. The final AGMs of the March year-end FTSE100 companies … Continue Reading
