Hedge fund pursues effort to oust LSE chairman Brydon
An activist investor is pressing ahead with a shareholder vote to oust the chairman of the London Stock Exchange despite the company's attempts to draw a line under a boardroom power struggle.
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TCI Fund Management, which owns 5% of LSE, has written to the company's board to say it wants a shareholder meeting by 28 December to vote on Donald Brydon's removal as chairman.
The hedge fund, run by Christopher Hohn, has piled pressure on LSE's board over the resignation of Xavier Rolet as chief executive. LSE announced in October that Rolet's would leave in 2018 but Hohn accused Brydon of forcing out Rolet against shareholder interests and called for his reinstatement.
On 10 November LSE gave in to TCI’s demand for a vote on whether Rolet should stay and Brydon should go.
On 29 November LSE attempted to bring the matter to a close by announcing the immediate departure of Rolet, who agreed not to return to the company and will receive about £13m. It promoted finance director David Warren to interim CEO.
LSE said Brydon would leave in 2019 and called on TCI to withdraw its demand for a shareholder meeting.
In his letter, dated Thursday 30 November, Hohn agreed to withdraw resolutions calling for Rolet to remain and for LSE to call off a search for a new boss.
But Hohn said: "The requisitioned ordinary resolution to remove Donald Brydon as a director of London Stock Exchange Group plc should proceed to a general meeting by no later than 28 December 2017. There is no change to our position on this."
Hohn's letter indicates further turbulence ahead for one of Britain's most prestigious companies, which is unused to airing its internal wranglings in public. TCI's decision to seek Brydon's removal could prompt LSE to publish details of its decision to part company with Rolet.
After scrapping a merger with Germany's Deutsche Boerse LSE could be vulnerable to a bid without a permanent CEO and with the chairman's in the balance.