Major BSkyB shareholders warn of nepotism
Institutional investors call emergency meeting
|
Ten institutional investors called an emergency meeting Wednesday with BSkyB non-exec directors Allan Leighton and Norman Francis a day after the announcement of Ball's departure. Meeting was held by the Assn. of British Insurers, which controls almost a quarter of London's stock market.
Peter Montagnon, the ABI's head of investment affairs, told the non-exec directors who are in charge of finding Ball's replacement that they "must be vigorous and objective" in their search.
"Jumping to the conclusion that James Murdoch has already been picked is not an appropriate place to start a rigorous and objective process," Montagnon said.
The National Assn. of Pension Funds, another shareholder body, also said it feared nepotism. "If there's a conflict of interest, BSkyB is going to have to be extremely scrupulous about how it approaches the appointment and explain to shareholders why it has done so."
A BSkyB spokesman said it had not appointed a successor, and a committee of independent non-exec directors would start the search for a new chief executive immediately.
