FILE PHOTO: A man shelters under an umbrella as he walks past the London Stock Exchange in London, Britain August 24, 2015. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/File Photo
December 19, 2017
LONDON (Reuters) – The London Stock Exchange’s board was accused on Tuesday of “bringing opprobium” on the 300-year old bourse in its dispute with top shareholder TCI.
LSE shareholders voted on Tuesday in a extraordinary general meeting on a resolution brought by TCI. It called for LSE Chairman Donald Brydon to be fired over his handling of the departure of former CEO Xavier Rolet, who left in November, a year earlier than planned.
“This is a very sorry affair, which has brought considerable opprobium on the company,” Aubrey Franklin, a small shareholder for over 20 years who backed the resolution, told the meeting.
The TCI resolution is expected to be defeated after a string of institutional shareholders like BlackRock and Aviva indicated they would vote against it. The result will be published later on Tuesday.
“It seems to me the old boys network has got together and the establishment is winning out,” Franklin said.
Paul Heiden, senior non-executive director at the LSE, said the board unanimously backed Brydon to remain in his post until the annual meeting in 2019.
(Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Huw Jones)
