Funding Circle fund to address opposition to key board appointments
A THIRD of investors in the Funding Circle SME Income Fund (FCIF) have expressed opposition to the re-election of senior executives Richard Boleat and Sachin Patel.
The investment trust held its annual general meeting this week, where 34.32 per cent of shareholders opposed the reappointed of Boleat as chairman and director, while another 34.71 per cent voted against Patel, chief capital officer for the Funding Circle peer-to-peer platform and the lender’s representative for the fund.
Both were still re-elected as directors with more than 65 per cent voting in favour.
It is unclear why there was so much opposition to their re-election as last year just 0.02 per cent and 1.61 per cent voted against their appointments.
Shareholders also appear to be getting increasingly frustrated with the fund’s auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers, with 31.52 per cent opposing both its reappointment and remuneration.
There was no such opposition at the 2017 shareholder meeting.
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Other resolutions to approve director remuneration and the FCIF dividend policy were unanimously passed.
“The board has noted the significant percentage of votes cast against resolutions the appointment and remuneration of the company’s auditor, and the reappointment of the chairman and of Funding Circle’s representative director,” FCIF said in a stock market update.
“These resolutions were all carried by the requisite majority with at least 65 per cent voted in favour, based on aggregate votes representing approximately 78 per cent of the total voting rights.
“The board will continue its programme of engagement with the company’s major shareholders regarding its corporate governance arrangements and in particular will seek to understand and address concerns regarding the specific authorities sought under the above resolutions.”
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