Jumat, 19 Mei 2023

Tesco chair steps down after allegations of inappropriate behaviour; Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty lost £200m in a year – as it happened - The Guardian

Newsflash: Tesco has announced that its chairman, John Allan, is stepping down in a month’s time, following claims of inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour reported by the Guardian earlier this month.

Allan will step down as chair of Britain’s largest supermarket at its AGM on 16 June.

Tesco says Allan’s tenure as Chair was due to end shortly, and that a succession planning process had “been initiated over recent months” and is expected to conclude soon.

In a statement to the City, Tesco explains that in recent weeks, four allegations have been made in the media in relation to Allan’s personal conduct.

The company says it has not received any complaints about Allan’s conduct, and makes no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction.

Three of these allegations are vigorously denied by Allan, for the other he unreservedly apologised for the comment he made, Tesco says, adding:

One of the allegations related to the Tesco AGM in 2022. In response, Tesco immediately instigated an extensive review of the allegation. This has involved an internal communication to colleagues inviting them to come forward if they had concerns regarding any conduct issues and specifically at the Tesco 2022 AGM. Tesco attendees at the meeting have been further contacted, including colleagues who have since left the Company. Available video footage of the meeting has been reviewed, as have internal complaints records, including from the Company’s confidential whistleblowing service.

The scope of the review has been considered by external legal counsel, who advised that the steps were reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

This review has not identified any evidence or complaints in relation to John at the Tesco 2022 AGM or at all in his tenure as Tesco Chair.

On 9 May, the Guardian reported that Allan allegedly touched the bottom of a senior member of Tesco staff in June 2022, at the company’s AGM.

It was also claimed that he touched the bottom of a member of staff at the business lobbying group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), at its annual dinner in May 2019, when he was the organisation’s president.

Sources also alleged that Allan, 74, made inappropriate remarks on those occasions as well as separate, similar comments to two other female members of CBI staff in November 2019 and in 2021 respectively.

Allan has denied all but one of the allegations – making a comment about a CBI staffer’s appearance that she found to be offensive in 2019. A spokesperson for Allan said the other claims were “simply untrue”.

Byron Grote, Tesco’s Senior Independent Director, says today that John Allan has made a valuable contribution, but the allegations against him risk ‘becoming a distraction’ to the supermarket.

Grote says:

“John has made a valuable contribution to Tesco during his 8 years as Chair.

He has successfully led the Board through the turnaround and Covid whilst helping to rebuild the business. While we have received no complaints about John’s conduct and made no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction to Tesco.

On behalf of the Board, I thank him for his substantial contribution to the business. We are well advanced in our search for a new Chair and will make an announcement in due course.”

Grote has been appointed as Interim Chair.

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Time to wrap up, after a day in which we got fresh insight into the wealth of the UK’s richest.

The number of billionaires in the UK fell by 6 according to the latest Sunday Times rich list, to 171, although their combined wealth climbed by over £30bn to £683.8bn.

Those whose wealth shank in the last year included Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty, who are down to their last half a billion pounds after their net worth fell by £200m, due to the fall in Infosys shares.

Richard Branson and family also slipped down the table.

But INEOS chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe had a better year, rising to be the second wealthiest person in Britain, with a near-£30bn fortune.

The list is topped for a fifth time by Gopi Hinduja and his family, with a fortune estimated at £35bn, up £6.5bn, the largest ever recorded in the 35-year history of the Sunday Times rankings.

The Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, claimed the title of the wealthiest under-35 year old, with £9.878bn, on a list of young rich including Ed Sheeran (£300m), Rory McIlroy (£200m), and Adele (£165m).

In other news today:

John Allan will stand down as chair of Tesco after allegations of inappropriate behaviour.

Allan, who has been chair of the UK’s biggest supermarket since 2015, will step down at the retailer’s annual general meeting (AGM) on 16 June.

The announcement came on Friday, 10 days after the Guardian reported that Allan allegedly touched the bottom of a senior member of Tesco staff in June 2022, at the company’s last AGM.

In a statement, Tesco said it had conducted an extensive review into the allegation relating to the annual meeting but had “not identified any evidence or complaints”against Allan.

More here:

Global stock markets have hit a one-month high, on hopes of a deal to lift the US debt ceiling and avoid a destabilising default. Japan’s Nikkei hit a 33-year high, and Germany’s DAX climbed to a record level.

Soaring food prices will soon overtake energy as the main factor in the cost of living crisis, research shows…

… with household energy bills likely to finally drop this summer:

Here’s the rest of today’s news:

In a statement issued separately to Tesco, John Allan says:

“It is with regret that I am having to prematurely stand down from my position as chair of Tesco Plc following the anonymous and unsubstantiated allegations made against me, as reported by The Guardian.

“These allegations are utterly baseless, as the internal procedures undertaken by Tesco prove.

“Tesco undertook an ‘extensive internal review’ which included inviting Tesco employees and ex-employees to come forward on an anonymous basis if they had concerns about my conduct.”

“There is no evidence of any wrongdoing at that time or at any stage of my chairmanship at Tesco, and I remain determined to prove my innocence.”

Tesco shares have ticked slightly lower this afternoon, and are currently down about 0.5%.

The supermarket has seen shares fall for five straight days and is down more than 5% in the past two weeks, points out Bloomberg’s David Goodman.

Other retailers are under pressure today too, with JD Sports dropping 7.4% and Next off 1.4%. JD Sports weakened after athletic retailer Foot Locker reported worse than expected results for its first financial quarter, and cut its annual sales and profit forecast. Foot Locker’s shares are down 25%, sending a shiver through the retail sector.

UK households may soon see some relief on their energy costs, with the average bill set to fall to an average of £2,053 a year this summer.

Analysts at Cornwall Insight made the prediction, as the regulator prepares to lower its cap on energy prices next week.

My colleague Jillian Ambrose explains, though, that bills will still be rather higher than before Covid-19:

However, campaigners have warned that the lower cap on energy bills, to be announced on Thursday, is unlikely to provide much relief to households that struggled to pay their bills over the winter because the government’s support schemes have come to an end.

Households should also expect their energy bills to remain stubbornly high through the coming winter, at almost double the rates paid in 2020, and remain above pre-pandemic levels for the rest of the decade, according to analysts at Cornwall Insight.

Over in Beijing, the China president of AstraZeneca has declared the global drugmaker will seek to be a patriotic company in China that “loves the Communist Party”, Reuters reports.

Wang Lei, who is also the company’s global executive vice president, made the comment at an event in the eastern city of Wuxi to celebrate the drugmaker’s 30th year in China, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Reuters adds:

While many local companies have in recent years pledged allegiance to the ruling Chinese Communist Party as President Xi Jinping has strengthened its social and economic role, such messaging is still unusual from foreign ones.

“Build a local, transnational company that loves the Communist Party and loves the country,” Wang said in his presentation to an audience of a few hundred participants. Photographs showed the words flashing across a screen behind him.

In response to questions from Reuters on whether Wang’s pledge, and the contents of the presentation, were approved by AstraZeneca’s senior management, a spokesperson at the company’s headquarters in Cambridge declined to comment.

The spokesperson also declined to comment on what Wang’s comments meant for its business plans in China.

Back in the markets, hopes of a US debt ceiling deal are pushing stocks higher on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average, of 30 large US companies, has gained 0.25% or 81 points to 33,617 points, while the broader S&P 500 has risen 0.33%.

Analysts at UBS explains:

An agreement to raise the US debt ceiling remains elusive but investor sentiment has improved after a second meeting between President Biden and congressional leaders.”

Newsflash: Tesco has announced that its chairman, John Allan, is stepping down in a month’s time, following claims of inappropriate and unprofessional behaviour reported by the Guardian earlier this month.

Allan will step down as chair of Britain’s largest supermarket at its AGM on 16 June.

Tesco says Allan’s tenure as Chair was due to end shortly, and that a succession planning process had “been initiated over recent months” and is expected to conclude soon.

In a statement to the City, Tesco explains that in recent weeks, four allegations have been made in the media in relation to Allan’s personal conduct.

The company says it has not received any complaints about Allan’s conduct, and makes no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction.

Three of these allegations are vigorously denied by Allan, for the other he unreservedly apologised for the comment he made, Tesco says, adding:

One of the allegations related to the Tesco AGM in 2022. In response, Tesco immediately instigated an extensive review of the allegation. This has involved an internal communication to colleagues inviting them to come forward if they had concerns regarding any conduct issues and specifically at the Tesco 2022 AGM. Tesco attendees at the meeting have been further contacted, including colleagues who have since left the Company. Available video footage of the meeting has been reviewed, as have internal complaints records, including from the Company’s confidential whistleblowing service.

The scope of the review has been considered by external legal counsel, who advised that the steps were reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

This review has not identified any evidence or complaints in relation to John at the Tesco 2022 AGM or at all in his tenure as Tesco Chair.

On 9 May, the Guardian reported that Allan allegedly touched the bottom of a senior member of Tesco staff in June 2022, at the company’s AGM.

It was also claimed that he touched the bottom of a member of staff at the business lobbying group the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), at its annual dinner in May 2019, when he was the organisation’s president.

Sources also alleged that Allan, 74, made inappropriate remarks on those occasions as well as separate, similar comments to two other female members of CBI staff in November 2019 and in 2021 respectively.

Allan has denied all but one of the allegations – making a comment about a CBI staffer’s appearance that she found to be offensive in 2019. A spokesperson for Allan said the other claims were “simply untrue”.

Byron Grote, Tesco’s Senior Independent Director, says today that John Allan has made a valuable contribution, but the allegations against him risk ‘becoming a distraction’ to the supermarket.

Grote says:

“John has made a valuable contribution to Tesco during his 8 years as Chair.

He has successfully led the Board through the turnaround and Covid whilst helping to rebuild the business. While we have received no complaints about John’s conduct and made no findings of wrongdoing, these allegations risk becoming a distraction to Tesco.

On behalf of the Board, I thank him for his substantial contribution to the business. We are well advanced in our search for a new Chair and will make an announcement in due course.”

Grote has been appointed as Interim Chair.

There’s a shake-up coming at the top of one of Wall Street’s biggest banks.

Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman plans to step down as chief executive officer in the next 12 months and assume the role of executive chairman, Bloomberg reports, adding:

“It is the board’s and my expectation that it will occur at some point in the next 12 months,” Gorman, 64, said Friday at the firm’s annual meeting.

“That is the current expectation in the absence of a major change in the external environment.”

Gorman became CEO of Morgan Stanley in January 2010, when the global economy had been rocked by the financial crisis, and chairman as well two years later.

Germany’s stocks hit record levels after new economic data today showed inflation pressures easing.

German producer prices posted their slowest annual increase in two years in April, rising by 4.1% in the year to April. That’s a slowdown on March’s 6.7% rise.

Germany’s DAX index has just hit a record high, as signs of progress in U.S. debt ceiling negotiations encouraged investors to pile into riskier assets.

The DAX index climbed 0.8% hitting 16,293 points for the first time ever. It had previously hit a record in November 2021.

It’s gained 17% so far this year, as shares recover from hefty losses in 2022.

This year’s expanded rich list of 350 individuals and families together hold a combined wealth of £796.459bn.

At the risk of comparing flows and stocks, that’s larger than the GDP of Switzerland.

It’s also four times as large as the biggest company listed in London, AstraZeneca (£185bn). However, it’s barely a third of the value of Apple ($2.75trn or £2.2trn).

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2023-05-19 15:23:58Z
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