Since the high-profile pay rebellions of 2012, annual meetings are becoming political showdowns. Where are the most likely flashpoints this year?
Corporate Britain’s least favourite time of the year is almost here. Each spring, the bosses of the UK’s biggest companies traipse to conference centres to be interrogated, abused and occasionally praised by shareholders at their company’s annual general meetings. Weeks of preparation go into a big AGM – from rehearsals for the chairman and chief executive to negotiations with big investors to head off potential revolts.
There has never been such a range of pressures on companies at AGMs as there are now. During the so-called shareholder spring of 2012, large investors, blamed for not holding boards to account before the financial crisis, rebelled against pay and other governance matters at some of Britain’s biggest companies. Bosses were humiliated and some were forced out.