http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/arti ... y-row.html
Royal Mail boss is humiliated in another pay row as concerns grow that he is involved in too many companies
Peter Long suffered one of the biggest shareholder revolts in corporate history
By RACHEL MILLARD FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 18:32 EDT, 20 August 2018 | UPDATED: 18:32 EDT, 20 August 2018
Royal Mail chairman Peter Long has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn in a fresh row over fat-cat pay at a second company he runs.
Just weeks after suffering one of the biggest shareholder revolts in corporate history at Royal Mail, the 66-year-old faced investor fury at estate agency Countrywide, where he is also chairman.
The company, whose brands include Hamptons International, Bairstow Eves and John D Wood, had planned to hand top bosses including Long up to £20m in shares.
But the controversial bonus scheme has been axed following a backlash from investors who threatened to vote against the plan at a meeting next week. The climbdown comes weeks after Long was humiliated by Royal Mail shareholders when 70pc of them voted against the postal service’s pay policies.
Concerns have been raised about whether he is over-stretched. He is paid £300,000 a year as chairman of Royal Mail and £360,000 as executive chairman of Countrywide.
He is also deputy chairman of the supervisory board at travel agent Tui, where he earns £167,000, but has relinquished his role as chairman of Spanish theme park operator Parques Reunidos.
In an interview two years ago Long said: ‘You have to ensure that when you take on chairmanships you can give sufficient time to them and you don’t spread yourself too thin.’
Peter Kyle MP, a member of the parliamentary business committee, said: ‘I have met people who can do the most prodigious amount of work and do it very well. But we have to judge the performance of executives by outcomes and not on their words, and it’s very clear there have been some outcomes for Royal Mail that have affected staff and affected customers, and this for me should trigger a period of reflection.’
Countrywide is Britain’s biggest estate agent and has about 10,000 employees, but has been struggling in the face of slumping property sales and online competition. It has issued four profit warnings in less than a year.
It had wanted to bring in an incentive scheme to try and boost morale, along with a £140m refinancing package to help keep the company afloat. Under the plan, father-of-three Long could have received stock worth more than £6m, managing director Paul Creffield £8m, and chief finance boss Himanshu Raja £7m.
However, it provoked a backlash, with leading shareholder advisory group ISS calling it excessive and recommending shareholders vote against the pay plans at a meeting on the refinancing plans next Tuesday.
Yesterday Countrywide pulled the scheme adding: ‘Consultation meetings on remuneration with major shareholders have been constructive and supportive.’
A Royal Mail spokesman said: ‘Peter Long is very committed to Royal Mail.’
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Lost in the posts: one Royal Mail chairman
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postareale
- EX ROYAL MAIL
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postareale
- EX ROYAL MAIL
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- Joined: 09 Aug 2018, 14:04
- Gender: Male
Lost in the posts: one Royal Mail chairman
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lost ... -f3wn3z58h
Lost in the posts: one Royal Mail chairman
Critics say Peter Long is overstretched, overpaid — and guilty of overboarding
Peter Evans and Sabah Meddings
August 19 2018, 12:01am,
The Sunday Times
After stepping down as joint chief executive of the tour operator Tui Travel early in 2016, Peter Long was inundated with offers of board seats.
He agreed to become chairman of the estate agent Countrywide, having held the same role at Royal Mail since the previous year. He took a seat on Tui’s supervisory board and was anointed as chairman-in-waiting.
Some observers asked: is he overstretching himself? Long was having none of it.
“You have to ensure that when you take on chairmanships you can give sufficient time to them and you don’t spread yourself too thin,” the aspiring grandee told The Sunday Times in an interview at that time.
It is advice that Long, 66, may now wish he had taken. A tumultuous few months at Royal Mail and Countrywide have seen him accused of “overboarding” — the term for familiar City faces who take on a string of lucrative boardroom roles without having the time to fulfil them all properly.
The criticism has also been levelled at Sir John Peace, who once led the boards of three FTSE 100 companies simultaneously, and Rick Haythornthwaite, who announced three months ago that he was stepping down as chairman of Centrica but continues in the role at three other companies.
Long never did take the Tui chairmanship, citing the “complexities of the German governance structure”, but he remains deputy chairman of the supervisory board. To add to his diary commitments, he became executive chairman at Countrywide after chief executive Alison Platt was ousted in January.
Last month he stood down as chairman of the Spanish leisure company Parques Reunidos. “There was a period when I was working as hard as I was when I was a chief executive,” Long remarked on Friday.
“I can deal with it, but I can deal with it for only so long, which is why I made the decision to step down at Parques. That was one too many and I accept that.”
Unsurprisingly, the unease about overboarding increases when companies start to underperform. That puts Long in the line of fire.
Last week, Royal Mail was given a record £50m fine by Ofcom for breaking competition law. The alleged breach happened in 2014, before Long became chairman, and the company intends to appeal.
It has also been hammered by critics for its decision to award new chief executive Rico Back a £6m “golden hello” and a higher salary than his predecessor, Dame Moya Greene, despite his being promoted from within. More than two-thirds of Royal Mail’s investors voted against the deal, and 34% opposed Long’s re-election as chairman, for which he is paid £300,000 a year.
Long could face another pay revolt at Countrywide, where investors are said to be up in arms over a potential £20m share bonanza for him and two fellow directors. The windfall relates to a fundraising this month, when the ailing estate agent begged for £140m of emergency cash from investors.
The advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis have urged shareholders to vote against the remuneration policy, which will judge the directors’ performance solely on growth in Countrywide’s market capitalisation. It is understood that the directors are willing to amend the deal to avoid a rebellion.
The shares were offered at 10p — an 80% discount to their closing price the previous evening. The cash will be used to ease the estate agent’s huge debt burden.
Institutions were given the chance to maintain their holding in the company by taking part in the share placing. Smaller investors, however, were frozen out — left to fight over an open offer of £28.6m of new shares, diluting their holding in the company by up to 85.3%.
Long, who doubled his salary to £360,000 when he took on the executive duties, laid the blame for Countrywide’s shocking performance squarely at Platt’s feet. He labelled her strategy of running the estate agent like a retailer as “completely wrong”.
Those close to Long say he stepped in at a time of crisis at Countrywide and has put Royal Mail on a sure footing with the appointment of a new chief executive and finance director.
Others feel he is not entirely blameless. Harry Hill, who led Countrywide for 20 years until 2008, has said the current board should have had the “decency to resign” after overseeing the retail strategy experiment.
Reviving Countrywide is a big task for Long. It almost sounds like a full-time job.
Lost in the posts: one Royal Mail chairman
Critics say Peter Long is overstretched, overpaid — and guilty of overboarding
Peter Evans and Sabah Meddings
August 19 2018, 12:01am,
The Sunday Times
After stepping down as joint chief executive of the tour operator Tui Travel early in 2016, Peter Long was inundated with offers of board seats.
He agreed to become chairman of the estate agent Countrywide, having held the same role at Royal Mail since the previous year. He took a seat on Tui’s supervisory board and was anointed as chairman-in-waiting.
Some observers asked: is he overstretching himself? Long was having none of it.
“You have to ensure that when you take on chairmanships you can give sufficient time to them and you don’t spread yourself too thin,” the aspiring grandee told The Sunday Times in an interview at that time.
It is advice that Long, 66, may now wish he had taken. A tumultuous few months at Royal Mail and Countrywide have seen him accused of “overboarding” — the term for familiar City faces who take on a string of lucrative boardroom roles without having the time to fulfil them all properly.
The criticism has also been levelled at Sir John Peace, who once led the boards of three FTSE 100 companies simultaneously, and Rick Haythornthwaite, who announced three months ago that he was stepping down as chairman of Centrica but continues in the role at three other companies.
Long never did take the Tui chairmanship, citing the “complexities of the German governance structure”, but he remains deputy chairman of the supervisory board. To add to his diary commitments, he became executive chairman at Countrywide after chief executive Alison Platt was ousted in January.
Last month he stood down as chairman of the Spanish leisure company Parques Reunidos. “There was a period when I was working as hard as I was when I was a chief executive,” Long remarked on Friday.
“I can deal with it, but I can deal with it for only so long, which is why I made the decision to step down at Parques. That was one too many and I accept that.”
Unsurprisingly, the unease about overboarding increases when companies start to underperform. That puts Long in the line of fire.
Last week, Royal Mail was given a record £50m fine by Ofcom for breaking competition law. The alleged breach happened in 2014, before Long became chairman, and the company intends to appeal.
It has also been hammered by critics for its decision to award new chief executive Rico Back a £6m “golden hello” and a higher salary than his predecessor, Dame Moya Greene, despite his being promoted from within. More than two-thirds of Royal Mail’s investors voted against the deal, and 34% opposed Long’s re-election as chairman, for which he is paid £300,000 a year.
Long could face another pay revolt at Countrywide, where investors are said to be up in arms over a potential £20m share bonanza for him and two fellow directors. The windfall relates to a fundraising this month, when the ailing estate agent begged for £140m of emergency cash from investors.
The advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis have urged shareholders to vote against the remuneration policy, which will judge the directors’ performance solely on growth in Countrywide’s market capitalisation. It is understood that the directors are willing to amend the deal to avoid a rebellion.
The shares were offered at 10p — an 80% discount to their closing price the previous evening. The cash will be used to ease the estate agent’s huge debt burden.
Institutions were given the chance to maintain their holding in the company by taking part in the share placing. Smaller investors, however, were frozen out — left to fight over an open offer of £28.6m of new shares, diluting their holding in the company by up to 85.3%.
Long, who doubled his salary to £360,000 when he took on the executive duties, laid the blame for Countrywide’s shocking performance squarely at Platt’s feet. He labelled her strategy of running the estate agent like a retailer as “completely wrong”.
Those close to Long say he stepped in at a time of crisis at Countrywide and has put Royal Mail on a sure footing with the appointment of a new chief executive and finance director.
Others feel he is not entirely blameless. Harry Hill, who led Countrywide for 20 years until 2008, has said the current board should have had the “decency to resign” after overseeing the retail strategy experiment.
Reviving Countrywide is a big task for Long. It almost sounds like a full-time job.
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cockneyrebel
- EX ROYAL MAIL
- Posts: 117
- Joined: 08 Nov 2017, 13:54
- Gender: Male
Lost in the posts: one Royal Mail chairman
£640,000 for the CEO £300,000 for the Chairman £85,000 for non executive director who is PART TIME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
all with it appears to be fingers in other pies ??? conflict of interest ?? no of course not !! in my dreams !!!
one things for sure colleagues THE GRAVY TRAIN IS STILL UP AND RUNNING STRONG
£50 million fine to add but do we care -not a hoot !! company is loaded-awash with Money but !! only at the sharp end/foot soldiers does the GRAVY TRAIN fail to stop we cant get on board !! most of us to tired/injured from the job to do so even if we wanted to !!!!!!
another depot walk out ?? how many more in next few months to add to the growing list ??? morale on the floor it seems across the UK re websites etc
injury common now re the job and type of ailments which likely to last long into retirement
its a wonder any of us do it !!!!!!!!!!!! I guess we do because WE CARE
are we Rudderless at present -what direction are we going in re the future ??
where are our senior personnel ??? -any been seen in any depots of late ?? listening/talking to their staff ?? please advise if you seen them ??
some of us care about the job-like to know what future holds for us and please not the rhetoric we get re the courier ie just words no substance !!
lets see some actual facts/decisions made
Pension ?? maybe sorted out in year but i would not bet on this -would you ??
anyone going to step up to the plate and show us the way ??
i sure hope so
all with it appears to be fingers in other pies ??? conflict of interest ?? no of course not !! in my dreams !!!
one things for sure colleagues THE GRAVY TRAIN IS STILL UP AND RUNNING STRONG
£50 million fine to add but do we care -not a hoot !! company is loaded-awash with Money but !! only at the sharp end/foot soldiers does the GRAVY TRAIN fail to stop we cant get on board !! most of us to tired/injured from the job to do so even if we wanted to !!!!!!
another depot walk out ?? how many more in next few months to add to the growing list ??? morale on the floor it seems across the UK re websites etc
injury common now re the job and type of ailments which likely to last long into retirement
its a wonder any of us do it !!!!!!!!!!!! I guess we do because WE CARE
are we Rudderless at present -what direction are we going in re the future ??
where are our senior personnel ??? -any been seen in any depots of late ?? listening/talking to their staff ?? please advise if you seen them ??
some of us care about the job-like to know what future holds for us and please not the rhetoric we get re the courier ie just words no substance !!
lets see some actual facts/decisions made
Pension ?? maybe sorted out in year but i would not bet on this -would you ??
anyone going to step up to the plate and show us the way ??
i sure hope so