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Tyler faces more investor mischief

Thu, 2010-07-22

Financial Times

David Tyler, chairman of J Sainsbury and Logica, endured investor opposition for the second time this year when almost a third of investors in Experian failed to back his re-election to the board.

In the latest sign of investor unrest in UK blue chips, the 30 per cent protest vote included 20 per cent of votes withheld.

Mr Tyler was previously finance director of GUS, the retailer from which Experian was demerged about five years ago.

Also, some 11 per cent of investors did not approve the remuneration report. That was an improvement on the prior year, when 18 per cent failed to do so.

Pirc, the corporate governance advisory group, noted in a report that Don Robert, chief executive, received more than 500 per cent of his base salary through bonuses and other awards and branded the payouts “excessive”.

The 57-year-old Mr Tyler also faced opposition at the Logica annual meeting in May, when almost a quarter of investors voted against the pay report.

It is no wonder he has spoken out against new UK corporate governance code guidelines requiring the annual re-election of board members, saying it would present shareholders “with a charter for mischief-making”. Experian’s largest shareholders include Goldman Sachs, Legal & General and Fidelity.