A body set up to defuse rows between major companies and their City investors has been involved in nine situations since it was established in October 2014, it has announced.
The Investor Forum, born out of the 2012 review by John Kay into long-term investing, said it had been involved in behind-the-scenes talks on issues including succession planning, corporate governance and strategy.
Simon Fraser, the chairman of the Investor Forum, would not identify the disagreements or confirm any involvement in the situation at Sports Direct, which has recently fallen out of the FTSE 100 amid revelations by the Guardian about working conditions at the sports retailer.
Fraser, a former chief investment officer at Fidelity, said the forum had secured the backing of 19 fund managers for the next three years. The body facilitates talks between groups of major City shareholders and the companies in which they hold stakes. It has been operating with the support of the Investment Association, but now intends to become independent.
Lady Neville-Rolfe, a minister at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, said: “The forum plays a valuable role in bringing investors together to support and challenge companies to ensure their strategies create long-term value.”
In the future, the Investor Forum may publish an annual report that could provide more information about its interactions between companies and shareholders.
James Anderson, a partner at Baillie Gifford, said the forum “enables serious dialogue with major companies away from the noise of market trading and offers the opportunity to reverse the fragmentation and diminution of our influence and responsibilities as owners that has so marred recent history”.
Asked about the situation at advertising company WPP, where the chief executive, Sir Martin Sorrell, is poised to receive a £60m share bonus, Fraser said that as an example, the Investor Forum was unlikely to be asked to focus on a situation as specific as pay.