The annual shareholder meeting of the Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the investment trust that buys the rights to songs, was a spicy affair. Andrew Sutch, the chairman, was forced to step down mid-meeting after revealing that 70 per cent of shareholders had voted against his reappointment.
Still, at least Sutch showed up to the summit, held in a cramped meeting room in the trendy Notting Hill office block that Hipgnosis occupies. Two directors — Andrew Wilkinson and Paul Burger — stood down on the eve of the meeting, while a third, Simon Holden, apparently had a prior commitment and couldn’t make it.
Merck Mercuriadis, the showman founder of the trust’s management company, did at least deign to join the meeting — over video from his home in LA. After investors resoundingly voted against the continuation of the fund, Merck piped up to say “we respect that feedback” and that he was looking forward “to working with the new board”.
When assembled, that new board will be conducting a review that could result in the removal of their management company.
Time for Mercuriadis to face the music?
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Puppy dog tale at the Guildhall
To the Guildhall in London, where hundreds of bankers gathered for the annual shindig of their lobby group UK Finance last week. And for once, the poor souls of the City had something to celebrate. Just hours before they sat down for a scrumptious three-course meal, the City’s regulators announced that no longer would bankers’ bonuses be limited to twice their salaries.
Souring the mood a bit, UK Finance boss David Postings used his speech to rail against consumers who are using the Financial Ombudsman Service to recoup money in “scam” cases. In one instance, he explained, a family said they were unhappy with a puppy they had bought and so were reimbursed their payment, plus interest. And guess what? “They kept the puppy!” said Postings incredulously.
You can’t win ’em all.
Tony keeps on pressing the flesh
Prufrock, for one, has found it difficult to un-see the image of AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes receiving a topless massage during a meeting, which, for reasons only known to himself, he decided to post on LinkedIn.
Fernandes, the former owner of Queens Park Rangers FC, deleted the post following a social media uproar, but Prufrock was glad to see last week that the portly Fernandes is happy not to completely brush this incident under the carpet.
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Back on LinkedIn, Fernandes posted a video of himself — this time in a beige suit — flogging AirAsia merchandise from a trolley on one of his planes.
“Wore a full suit and had many, many offers of massages,” Fernandes claimed. “So I’m thrilled to know that our guests have a great sense of humour.”
Hmm. If you say so, Tony.
Bird song not so sweet for Stphn
Poor old Stephen Bird. The chief executive of Abrdn has suffered a torrid time on the stock market this year: the shares are down 19 per cent and the fund management company recently dropped out of the FTSE 100 (again).
To make matters worse, Bird is facing a campaign of trolling by environmentalists who have long called on the company to shed all investments in fossil-fuel generators. Protesters drew up posters dubbing Bird “Edinburgh’s biggest joker”.
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Now, a video is doing the rounds among fund manager WhatsApp groups in which a busker takes aim at Bird. The ditty contains digs about his company going “down the pan” and struggling to retain staff. Played to the tune of Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”, the artist replaces the song’s chorus line with “Stephen Birdbrain”.
Or, in Abrdn parlance, Stphn Brdbrn.
• Sofa and carpets retailer ScS succumbed to a £100 million takeover by Italian furniture outfit Poltronesofà last week. At a 66 per cent premium to its closing share price, it was seemingly a great deal for ScS’s beleaguered investors. But on closer inspection, it’s quite a deal for Poltronesofà.
ScS has no debt and is sitting on £69.5 million of cash. So, as one banker whispered to Prufrock, the Italians are getting the business for about £30 million. Much of the cash is customer deposits, so the furniture and carpets still need to be delivered, but cash is cash, after all. And this is a business that generated £34 million of earnings in the year to July. In other words, Poltronesofà is buying one of Britain’s best-known sofa makers for less than a year’s worth of earnings. Cushy.
Funny business
Just saying ...
They didn’t work as hard, regardless of what they tell you … They don’t have to buy expensive clothes, so their incomes are higher — Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman extols the virtues (for employees) of working from home