Wetherspoon founder Martin renews governance feud with investors

The pugilistic chairman of JD Wetherspoon has revived a long-running feud with investor groups over corporate governance at the listed pubs operator amid threats of a fresh revolt at this month’s annual meeting.

Sky News has learnt that at least two shareholder advisory services are recommending protest votes on issues including boardroom diversity and the independence of non-executive directors.

City sources said that the Investment Association’s IVIS advisory service had issued a red-top alert because only two of Wetherspoon’s eight directors were women – which falls short of current IVIS policy stipulating that at least 30% of board members should be female.

However, Tim Martin, the company’s founder and chairman, insisted on Tuesday evening that IVIS’s concerns related to perceptions of independence because some directors – including himself – had held their posts for longer than nine years.

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In a statement issued to Sky News, Mr Martin said: “IVIS have not engaged with Wetherspoon, as they are supposed to do, on the issue of board gender diversity or anything else.

“These type of tick box exercises risk bringing the corporate governance rules into disrepute.

“So far as we can see, the IVIS report does not make any criticisms of the gender diversity of the Wetherspoon board or make any recommendations.”

A source close to the IA said Mr Martin’s comments were inaccurate, that IVIS had engaged with the company and that it had seen the advisory service’s report prior to its formal distribution, in accordance with usual practice.

It is the latest exchange of brickbats between Mr Martin and investor groups, with the pubs tycoon having been a long-standing critic of City rules relating to directors’ board tenure.

Last month, he announced plans to elevate a number of Wetherpoon’s employees to boardroom positions, a move that he said would ensure that the company’s “DNA” was protected.

On Tuesday, he added that the IA had it “no answer whatsoever to the well -founded argument, accepted by most Wetherspoon shareholders, that the nine-year rule can be counter-productive and harmful to companies”.

In its report ahead of Wetherspoon’s annual meeting, Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that investors oppose the re-election of Debra van Gene and Sir Richard Beckett as non-executives and abstaining on Mr Martin’s re-election.

The company’s AGM is scheduled to take place on November 18.

The IA declined to comment.

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