Latest news with #PensionFunds
Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Times
Pension funds unite to fight virtual annual meetings
Pension funds speaking for 11 million workers and retirees are mobilising to defend board governance standards and fight any proposals to allow listed companies to abandon physical annual meetings. An alliance of pension schemes including the £34 billion railworkers scheme and the £36 billion BT fund have joined forces to create a new lobby grouping, the Governance for Growth Investor Campaign (GGIC). The schemes have become increasingly concerned about the watering down of governance standards and plan to take a stance if the government pushes ahead with proposals to encourage virtual-only meetings. They fear that annual meetings conducted entirely online, while cheaper, would allow boards to cherry-pick easy questions, dodge being held accountable for failings and stage-manage proceedings to suppress healthy debate among shareholders. There is speculation that ministers will yield to corporate-sector pressure to make it easier to hold virtual-only meetings in the Audit Reform and Corporate Governance Bill, which is due to be published later this year. Digital-only shareholder meetings are commonplace in the United States now but still rare in the UK, as they normally require a change to the company's articles of association. Marks & Spencer faced a backlash after trying one in 2023. Pension schemes are also concerned that the wider policymaking agenda to promote City growth has been dominated by investment banks, City law firms and the London Stock Exchange, with no one listening to those speaking for the ordinary saver in retirement schemes. Much of the lobbying push to reform the listing rules and pressurise institutional investors into allocating capital to UK assets came from the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce, a self-appointed body with few members purely representing the interests of long-term savers. Caroline Escott, head of investment stewardship at RailPen, who is leading the GGIC campaign, said: 'Last year's UK listing changes watered down many longstanding shareholder rights, changes which to date do not appear to have had a positive effect on the UK IPO [initial public offering] environment. 'We do think the pension-saving investor's perspective … has been overlooked and under-appreciated. We don't seem to have learnt the lessons of the past,' she said, pointing to a previous watering-down to listing rules that led to investment disasters including ENRC, a Kazakh mining company, and Bumi, an Indonesian coalminer, more than ten years ago. There was strong evidence high governance standards improved investor returns, she said. Some schemes are also concerned about the recent scrapping of shareholder-friendly corporate governance proposals including the requirement for companies to publish audit and assurance plans. Others signing up to the saver-focused GGIC include the People's Pension, which has 7 million members, the Church of England Pensions Board and Brunel Pension Partnership, an umbrella grouping for ten council schemes. Together they boast £150 billion of pension firepower. One urgent priority for the grouping is to apply for a seat on the new listings taskforce, a body announced in the financial services growth and competitiveness strategy alongside other Mansion House measures last week. Escott said: 'Our experience of virtual-only meetings is that they allow companies to cherry-pick questions and reduce the opportunity for general interaction with shareholders.' UK companies holding virtual meetings include Aston Martin, Haleon and Clarksons. The Financial Conduct Authority was criticised last year after holding a digital-only annual meeting and has since said it will return to a hybrid format.
Bloomberg
03-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Deutsche Glasfaser Turns to Preferred Equity to Tempt Investors
German telecommunications company Deutsche Glasfaser is seeking to lure investors with better terms in its €1 billion ($1.2 billion) fundraising process, after an initial push to raise common equity fell flat. The firm, owned by private equity group EQT AB and Canadian pension fund Omers, is aiming to raise about €500 million of preferred equity in the coming weeks to finance its business plan, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because they aren't authorized to talk about it. And the rest will be raised at a later stage, one of the people said, adding that the coupon will likely be in the low teens.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Barclays, ex-CEO Staley must face US shareholder lawsuit over Jeffrey Epstein ties
By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -Barclays and former Chief Executive Jes Staley must face a lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming they defrauded shareholders about Staley's close ties to the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ruled on Wednesday that holders of Barclays' American Depositary Receipts plausibly alleged the defendants intended to mislead them to protect the bank's reputation and prop up its stock price. Investors said the fraud ran from July 22, 2019, about two weeks after Epstein's arrest, through October 12, 2023, and continued even after Barclays learned about an email cache showing Staley viewed Epstein as "family." They cited public statements suggesting the relationship was purely professional, and that an inquiry by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority concerned mainly whether Staley was aware of Epstein's alleged sex crimes, not whether he witnessed some. Frimpong narrowed two claims against a third defendant, Barclays Group Chairman Nigel Higgins. Pension funds in New York and St. Louis lead the proposed class action, which seeks unspecified damages. Staley's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Lawyers for Barclays and Higgins did not immediately respond to similar requests. The shareholders' lawyers also did not immediately respond to such requests. Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019, on federal sex trafficking charges, and killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell five weeks later. Staley was Barclays' chief executive from 2015 to 2021. He was previously a top banker and JPMorgan Chase, where he also had a close relationship with Epstein. Staley lost his appeal in London on Thursday against a proposed financial industry ban announced by the FCA in 2023 for misleading the regulator about Epstein. Staley maintained that he didn't know about Epstein's "monstrous activities" and did not remember embarrassing emails. He said he was disappointed with Thursday's decision. The U.S. shareholder case is Merritt v Barclays Plc et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 23-09217. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Reuters
26-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Barclays, ex-CEO Staley must face US shareholder lawsuit over Jeffrey Epstein ties
NEW YORK, June 26 (Reuters) - Barclays (BARC.L), opens new tab and former Chief Executive Jes Staley must face a lawsuit in Los Angeles claiming they defrauded shareholders about Staley's close ties to the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ruled on Wednesday that holders of Barclays' American Depositary Receipts plausibly alleged the defendants intended to mislead them to protect the bank's reputation and prop up its stock price. Investors said the fraud ran from July 22, 2019, about two weeks after Epstein's arrest, through October 12, 2023, and continued even after Barclays learned about an email cache showing Staley viewed Epstein as "family." They cited public statements suggesting the relationship was purely professional, and that an inquiry by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority concerned mainly whether Staley was aware of Epstein's alleged sex crimes, not whether he witnessed some. Frimpong narrowed two claims against a third defendant, Barclays Group Chairman Nigel Higgins. Pension funds in New York and St. Louis lead the proposed class action, which seeks unspecified damages. Staley's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Lawyers for Barclays and Higgins did not immediately respond to similar requests. The shareholders' lawyers also did not immediately respond to such requests. Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019, on federal sex trafficking charges, and killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell five weeks later. Staley was Barclays' chief executive from 2015 to 2021. He was previously a top banker and JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab, where he also had a close relationship with Epstein. Staley lost his appeal in London on Thursday against a proposed financial industry ban announced by the FCA in 2023 for misleading the regulator about Epstein. Staley maintained that he didn't know about Epstein's "monstrous activities" and did not remember embarrassing emails. He said he was disappointed with Thursday's decision. The U.S. shareholder case is Merritt v Barclays Plc et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 23-09217.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Britain's biggest bank to cut UK investments in snub to Reeves
Lloyds Bank is to pull billions of pounds from Britain's stock market in a major blow to Rachel Reeves's efforts to boost the UK economy. Scottish Widows, the bank's pensions division, plans to cut its exposure to the UK and move more money into better-performing markets such as the US. It is a blow to the Chancellor, who has been encouraging pension funds to invest more in British stocks to boost both the market and the economy. The Telegraph previously revealed that Scottish Widows, which manages £230bn, had refused to sign up to an industry pledge to invest a certain amount of funds into Britain. The pact, known as the Mansion House Accord, will see 17 of Britain's largest workplace pensions providers invest at least 5pc of funds held in their defined contribution schemes into UK stocks by 2030. At the time, Chirantan Barua, Scottish Widows' chief executive, said: 'We will continue this investment approach to support our communities where it generates strong returns for pensioners.' Scottish Widows is planning to lower its exposure to UK stocks in its highest growth fund from 12pc to 3pc, the Financial Times reported. The Edinburgh fund manager also plans to cut UK investments in its most conservative fund from 4pc to 1pc. It aims to complete the changes by January 2026. The overhaul means Scottish Widows' £72bn default workplace pensions fund will take a 'market weight' approach, meaning the amount of money allocated to each country will depend on the size of their stock market. In practice, this will mean less investment in Britain. At the moment, Scottish Widows has more of its assets invested in the UK than other markets relative to the size and value of Britain's economy. Of its £72bn workplace pension pot, it invests £5.5bn, or 7.6pc, in Britain. The decision to cut back comes after an extended slump for the London Stock Exchange. The relative value of the UK's stock market has fallen sharply over the past two decades, from around 11pc of the MSCI World Index in 2000 to 4pc today. Big investors have increasingly pulled away from British stocks because of dwindling returns since the financial crash of 2008. Conversely, American stock markets have surged. Pension funds had 53pc of their assets invested in UK stocks in 2000 but that has fallen to 6pc today, according to a report from New Financial. Scottish Widows declined to comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Sign in to access your portfolio
