Next Wednesday see the AGM of Sports Direct take place. Since I last blogged about this it has become clear that a major investor revolt is underway.
The company has been publicly criticised by the Investor Forum (a first), which has called for a thorough overhaul of corporate governance and employment practises, plus related party transactions and so on. The Forum is very mainstream so a public statement of this nature is pretty serious, and an sign of exasperation.
A number of investors and investor advisers have publicly announced their voting intentions, including their support for the Trade Union Share Owners resolution. Amongst those that we know are supporting, or recommending supporting, are Legal & General, LAPFF, Aberdeen, ISS, CalPERS, CalSTRS and Ontario Teachers and PIRC.
These are just the publicly-known voting positions on the resolution, it is very likely that other shareholders are also supportive of the resolution.
If the TUSO resolution gets a strong vote at the AGM this will put serious pressure on the company to undertaken a proper, independent review of its workforce practices. If it can be shown that even major institutional investors believe this is required then the position of Sports Direct workers and their representatives will be enormously strengthened.
So this is a last shout out to union members who are pension fund trustees or have any other role overseeing capital, if you have shares in Sports Direct Please Vote FOR Resolution 19.
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