In April 2021, we worked on:
- Woodford Campaign: Leigh Day are the only claim with insurance and funding in place. Harcus Parker have funding but do not have ATE insurance. RGL have neither insurance nor funding (other than funding for an initial step). Leigh Day (whose claim ShareSoc have endorsed) now have c 10,000 claimants registered and are the leading claim.
- Sirius Minerals Shareholder Group, Sirius Claim Group: A 20 page review of the evidence was finalised in April and we hope to move to the next stage soon.
- Voting Guidance and Shareholder engagement: We continue to test our new ideas with a pilot study of FTSE30 companies. This is a major exercise and reports have been published for:
Anglo American, AGM 5 May | GSK, AGM 5 May |
Aviva, AGM 6 May | Imperial Brands, Feb 2021 |
Bae, AGM 6 May | LSE, AGM 28 April |
Barclays, AGM 5 May | NatWest, AGM 28 April |
BAT, AGM 28 April | RELX, AGM 22 April. |
Compass, Feb 2021 | Unilever, AGM 5 May |
Glencore, AGM 29 April |
- Aviva Remuneration Review following FCA Censure over Irredeemables Scandal. The Aviva AGM is on 6 May and we will shortly submit our questions to the AGM.
- Consultation responses. None were made in April, but we are preparing responses to:
- BEIS: Manditory Climate-change disclosures
- BEIS audit review consultation
- SVS/ITI: we continue to provide a Support Group to help those who assets were with SVS which went into administration and were transferred to ITI.
- FCA: Mark Northway wrote to the FCA Chair asking for a meeting to discuss various of our concerns. This meeting was not granted. We did however meet FCA executives in the Primary Markets department on 23 April and had a constructive meeting where a number of our concerns were raised.
- FRC: re AGM, format and shareholder engagement: Cliff Weight is on a FRC working paper looking at the future of AGMs and we continue to input broadly to this review which will report in the Autumn.
Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc
The previous update for Feb and March can be read here https://sharesocstagin.wpenginepowered.com/sharesoc-news/policy-and-campaigns-progress-update-31-march-2021/
Would be great to get a transcript of Point 7 – the meeting with the FCA primary markets department.
Many Thanks,