Investment Association (IA) writes to FTSE All-Share “Repeat Offenders”

The Public Register was set up by the IA at the request of the government, and is an aggregated list of publicly available information regarding meetings of companies in the FTSE All-Share who have received significant shareholder opposition (20% and above) to proposed resolutions or have withdrawn a resolution prior to the shareholder vote. The aim of the Register is to highlight companies who receive a high vote against or withdraw a resolution, and to understand the process used by those companies to identify and address the concerns of their shareholders.

The IA’s repeat offenders list captures all companies that appeared on the IA’s Public Register in two consecutive years, for the exact same resolution. Investors consider that a repeat appearance on the Register for the same resolution highlights that a company is either not responding sufficiently to investor views, or the engagement process is not working effectively.

The IA says that of 287 individual resolutions so far this year the number added to the Public Register has jumped by 22%. They say a number of companies have failed to heed the warning of going on the register first time around.

Consequently, the IA has written to 32 “repeat offenders” who saw revolts over the same issues for two years running. These are:

FTSE 100

AstraZeneca plc
Berkeley Group Holdings plc
WPP plc

FTSE 250

Ashmore Group
Capital and Counties Properties plc
Centamin plc
Clarkson plc
Entertainment One Ltd
Games Workshop Group plc
GVC Holdings plc
Hammerson plc
Inmarsat plc
Intu Properties plc
Investec plc
Mitchells & Butlers plc
Playtech plc
Renishaw plc
Rotork plc
Safestore Holdings plc
Sophos Group plc
Syncona limited
Telecom Plus plc

FTSE Small Cap

AA plc
AO world plc
Impax Environmental Markets plc
Keystone Investment Trust plc
Lonmin plc
Mears Group plc
Premier Oil plc
Raven Property Group Ltd
Stock Spirits Group plc
Tarsus Group plc