Hargreaves bosses Mark Dampier and Lee Gardhouse refuse to give up bonuses. Two bosses at Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) who promoted the fallen fund manager Neil Woodford have volunteered to defer their bonuses in the wake of the investment scandal. The failure to give up their bonuses entirely, however, has sparked anger. More than 290,000 clients of the funds supermarket have had £1.6bn trapped in the Woodford Equity Income Fund since withdrawals by investors were suspended on June 3. Mark Dampier, research director, and Lee Gardhouse, the chief investment officer, deferred their annual bonuses as Hargreaves came under fire for backing Woodford while selling down its own stakes in his funds. Dampier and Gardhouse’s pay is not disclosed as they do not serve on the board.
Greene King (GNK) dividend on the line under new boss Nick Mackenzie. Greene King’s dividend will come into focus this week as the pub group’s new boss faces the City for the first time after the departure of Rooney Anand. Mackenzie, 50, will be tasked with ensuring Greene King continues to pay off debts relating to the acquisition of the rival Spirit pub group in 2015. He will also face questions over his plans for the dividend. He is expected to hold it steady at the full-year results on Thursday. Like all pub groups, Greene King is being hit by a cocktail of increased wages, rising business rates and currency pressure. Trading this year is proving weak compared with last year’s, which was boosted by hot summer weather and the World Cup: Greene King sold 3.7m pints of beer during England’s seven matches.
Struggling shopping centre owner Intu Properties (INTU) is set to be the biggest victim of Monsoon Accessorize’s company voluntary arrangement (CVA). Monsoon has 19 stores in Intu malls, four of which face rent cuts of more than 50%. A further six will have their rents slashed by more than a third if creditors approve the retailer’s restructuring plan early next month. This year’s flood of CVAs has been particularly painful for Intu because its huge debt pile gives it less room for manoeuvre than other landlords.
Hedge fund raider Coast Capital threatens to sue FirstGroup (FGP). The New York hedge fund trying to overthrow the board of train and bus giant FirstGroup is threatening to sue its directors if they sign a deal to run the new West Coast rail franchise. Coast Capital has called a vote to oust half the FTSE 250 company’s board and replace them with its own nominees. The 10% shareholder has labelled the six targeted directors — including chief executive Matthew Gregory and chairman Wolfhart Hauser — as “shades of super-destructive to extraordinarily underqualified”.
Smartphone technology supplier IQE (IQE) could face an investor backlash for paying boss Drew Nelson a bonus. Shareholder adviser Glass Lewis has urged investors to oppose IQE’s pay report after Nelson and operations director Howard Williams were given payouts despite missing financial targets. IQE, which supplies wafer semiconductor technology for smartphone microchips, awarded Nelson and Williams bonuses of £105,000 and £70,000 respectively for last year — the equivalent to a fifth of their salaries. That was despite falling short of targets linked to their awards. IQE said the remuneration committee had “exercised modest discretion to ensure fairness for shareholders and participants”.
WANdisco could be lost in the cloud. This month, Microsoft became America’s most valuable company at $1 trillion. Nadella, who took over in 2014, made a prescient move by shifting towards cloud computing; it is now a market leader. WANdisco is also pivoting towards the cloud. Since listing in 2012, its value has plunged from a peak of £1bn to £233m as the market did not grow as quickly as expected. It has burnt through cash and held a string of rights issues. In February, WANdisco raised $17.5m (£13.8m) through a share placing aimed at expanding relationships with America’s cloud giants. Sales fell 13% to $17m for the year to December, while pre-tax losses swelled from $14m to $19.4m. Things would have looked even bleaker but for a new accounting standard — IFRS 15 — that took effect in January last year. It required WANdisco to book annual subscription sales up front instead of deferring them. Without this, sales would have fallen 38% to $12.2m, with losses at $24m. There were other red flags. In April, WANdisco failed to disclose “bookings” — a measure of all the money a customer has committed to spend. Short-sellers are betting the shares will fall, with 1.8% of them out on loan. WANdisco enjoyed a mini renaissance in the first quarter, with sales rising 38% to $4m as it moves from a licence to a subscription-based model. However, the road ahead looks tough. With 40 competitors doing similar things, WANdisco can hardly claim to have the market to itself. Sell.