“MM&K continues to develop its global reach” Between 4th and 7th January, Paul Norris and Nigel Mills attended the fifth Annual Conference of the Global Governance and Executive Compensation Group (“GECN”) in Sydney. The GECN is a group of independent firms, whose logos appear below, specialising in advising corporate clients on executive compensation and good…

January 10, 2019 Read more >

Wishing all our clients a successful and prosperous 2019 Regardless of what happens concerning the UK’s continuing relationship with the rest of Europe as the PM seeks to re-open negotiations, life will continue, decisions will have to be taken, strategies formulated and business plans executed. It’s going to be a busy year. News of potentially…

January 3, 2019 Read more >

Launch of the Wates Principles for large private companies As we have already mentioned in our “Executive Remuneration Landscape” article, which was published in our September e-newsletter, 2018 has been one of the most eventful years in terms of remuneration governance in the UK. Earlier this year we saw the publication of the 2018 UK…

December 18, 2018 Read more >

Introduction On 22 November 2018, the Investment Association (“IA”), wrote to the chairmen of the remuneration committees of FTSE 350 companies attaching its updated Principles of Remuneration. These changes to the IA guidelines have been made against the backdrop of the new remuneration provisions in the UK Corporate Governance Code and the changes to the…

December 18, 2018 Read more >

New Investor Remuneration Guidelines As we move into 2019, the investor institutions and proxy agencies have been busy, producing their revised remuneration guidelines.  After a very active year in corporate governance there are, not surprisingly, a lot of changes. Starting with Glass Lewis: this major voting advisory agency has just issued its 2019 Proxy Guidelines…

December 5, 2018 Read more >

Valuation of share-based remuneration:  importance of underlying assumptions There are particular circumstances when a company needs to calculate a fair value of share options or performance share awards.  As the majority of performance shares in the UK are structured as nil-cost options this article refers throughout to options only. The most common circumstances are: 1.…

November 27, 2018 Read more >

Largest AIM companies stick with UK Corporate Governance Code AIM companies are required to adopt a recognised corporate governance code – which one do they choose? One of the main attractions of listing on the AIM market is the reduced regulatory requirements compared to a main market listing, but do the biggest AIM companies take…

November 26, 2018 Read more >

Are chief executives overpaid? In October 2018, Deborah Hargreaves published a new book, under the title “Are Chief Executives Overpaid?”. The question, of course, is rhetorical. Hargreaves is an ex Guardian business editor and FT journalist who has made it her life’s work to attack fat cat pay, which she believes is having a corrosive…

October 24, 2018 Read more >

Irish salaries beat UK salaries MM&K recently compared data from the Willis Towers Watson cross industry databases to find out how salaries compare between Ireland and the UK. The chart below compares UK and Irish employees’ salaries to their ‘Global Grade’ (the Willis Towers Watson Global Grading system assigns a job size to employees’ roles).…

October 24, 2018 Read more >

Value Creation Plans – genuine attempts at designing executive LTIPs or too complex to explain? Some years ago, I attended the AGM of one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. A shareholder asked a question about the proposed new executive LTIP. After a pause, one of the non-executives stood up and replied “it is too complex…

October 23, 2018 Read more >

Negative Feedback is Good for You It is curious how many technical expressions slip into the common language with a meaning entirely different from their true meaning – and often opposite. A couple of examples are “epicentre” and “lowest common denominator”.  People commonly use “epicentre” to mean the very heart of the centre.  The press…

October 18, 2018 Read more >

How will Remuneration Committees cope with their expanded remit? Changes to UK corporate governance guidance and disclosure regulations introduced this summer have expanded the remit of remuneration committees. The effects reach beyond quoted companies. We have designed a programme to help navigate through the added complexity. The UK Corporate Governance Code (UKCGC), applicable to companies…

September 27, 2018 Read more >