No sign yet of tide of shareholder discontent abating
By Kate Burgess and Elizabeth Rigby
Published: May 31 2008 03:00 | Last updated: May 31 2008 03:00
HSBC’s stormy annual meeting is the latest high water mark in the tide of shareholder discontent. Add it to the experiences of Royal Dutch Shell, BP and GlaxoSmithKline over recent weeks and the message is clear: investors are fed up with being seen as weak.
British companies feeling bruised by these attacks should look to the continent where political rhetoric is really building. The French government is threatening to curb “perfectly scandalous” pay packets for executives in underperforming companies, while the Dutch want to tax executive bonuses and severance packages.
It is inevitable that pay should become the battleground in these markets. Boards want to hold on to talent while executives want pay-back for the effort it takes to lead a business through troubled times.
And there is the rub: executives may feel they are working harder than ever to stand still, but their shareholders are watching their returns tick down. They are not prepared to wave through pay rises on the back of deteriorating investment portfolios.
But there is a second strand to this: shareholders are also worried that the delicate balance that non-executives need to strike between executives and the company’s owners is tipping towards managers.
If non-executives will not fulfil the role of keeping their executives in check, investors will take a more hardline approach. The bitter row between Marks and Spencer and some of its investors over its unilateral decision to promote Sir Stuart Rose to executive chairman was the first public glimpse of these tensions.
Directors trying to push through controversial proposals at annual meetings over the next few months should expect the water levels to continue to rise.
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
