How shareholders voted at Northern Rock's AGM in April

I’ve tweaked and reposted this piece as I’m getting a bit twitchy about some of my traffic... And just to make it absolutely clear - this is a personal blog, and does not reflect any person or organization’s views other than my own.

Anyway, inspired by this post on the Snowflake5 blog, I thought I would have a trawl around for institutional investors' voting records at Northern Rock's AGM in April this year.

To be clear from the outset, there is no smoking gun in all of this. Just because shareholders didn't vote against a given proposal doesn't mean that they are in any way complicit, nor is there any evidence that shareholder engagement would have prevented any of the damage that has been done. Northern Rock ran into trouble because its business model was based on borrowing from the market, so when the credit crunch hit home they were going to be in trouble whatever happened.

However, it is worth noting that the board was awarded big salary increases at a time when they must have had some idea that the situation was becoming dangerous. In addition some shareholders might have wanted to look at the role of the auditor, as they made more money from non-audit work (including securitisation) than the audit itself.

So what about the actual votes? Well, I preface this with my usual moan that the state of voting disclosure in the UK is poor, despite the industry's claims to the contrary. I have only been able to find 8 records which are listed below, including decisions.

Note too that because a number of institutions only disclose by exception (ie they only tell you when they vote against management or abstain) we have to take it that a failure to report on Northern Rock means that they didn't vote against anything. Tiresome to say the least!

Here is the limited info I could find:

BGI (page 22 of report)
Remuneration report - For
Auditor appointment - For

Co-operative Insurance (this links you to their voting search engine)
Remuneration report - Abstain
Auditor appointment - For

F&C (page 1057 of report)
Remuneration report - For
Auditor appointment - For

Fidelity (page 222 of report)
Remuneration report - For
Auditor appointment - For

Henderson
Remuneration report - For
Auditor appointment - For
(presumed, as exception-only reporting and no disclosure to the contrary)

M&G (page 84 of report)
Remuneration report - For
Auditor appointment - For

Royal London (you'll need to download the PDF if you really want to check)
Remuneration report - For
Auditor appointment - For

Standard Life
Remuneration report - For
Auditor appointment - For
(presumed, as exception-only reporting and no disclosure to the contrary)