IPO Advisor Bulletin - Summer 2024

We've received great feedback on our events over the last few months, so I wanted to do something a little different for our summer bulletin by sharing a summary of our recent market events - along with what's coming up next.

Due to our market presence we've run events in different UK regions to multiple communities – including company secretaries, investment trust advisors, issuer clients and more.

We're currently engaged in preparing for a whole raft of future events, so keep an eye out for future bulletins as well as posts on our.

Cecilia Williams, Client Solutions Director

Upcoming events

• IPO Advisor Panel (London) – 19 September
• Governance Readout/AGM Review (Edinburgh) – 26 September
• Governance Readout/AGM Review (London) – 3 October
• Investment Trust Advisor Panel (London) – 9 October
• CoSec Future Leaders OpenSpace (London) – 17 October

Please get in touch if you or your team would like to join any of these events.

Recent events

London | Industry Insights event

Our most recent Industry Insights event on 12 June explored how the perception of the company secretary continues to evolve at a great pace. Those in attendance were truly engaged and left with takeaways such as:

• The value of building face to face relationships with the businesses you support.
• Understanding use cases for AI and how to embrace it.
• Putting on your ‘new person goggles' to see what needs to change.

A huge thank you to our esteemed panel of governance professionals who shared their insights and practical suggestions:

• Andrea Davidson Ndukwe FCG ,Head of EMEA Corporate Governance, Invesco.
• Jeremy Small , Partner, Corporate Governance, Ashurst.
• Simon Tutton ,Head of Corporate Secretariat, LSEG.

Edinburgh | Panel and networking event

Hosted with the QCA and CMS

Computershare hosted a panel and networking event with the Quoted Companies Alliance and law firm CMS on 19 June. The panel of respected industry experts discussed what is needed to revive the stock market, while also examining the latest trends in corporate governance, shareholder activism and the 2024 AGM season.

The panel also covered:

• A sustained period with no changes to the International Financial Reporting Standards.
• Regulation that is stifling UK listed companies compared to other listed markets.
• Annual reports and their increasingly excess length.

Our brilliant panel, hosted by James Ashton from the QCA, included:

• Merryn Somerset Webb ,CEO, Amati Global Investors.
• Paul Jourdan , CEO, Amati Global Investors.
• James Baird , PhD, Senior Independent Director and Audit Chair, Macfarlane.
• John Britton ACSI , Governance & Industry Director, Computershare UK.

London | Governance Readout Breakfast

Our Governance Readout Breakfast session on 27 June was an early look from John Britton at the 2024 AGM season trends and insights from the AGMs Computershare has supported - along with an up-to-date snapshot of what's happening across the UK market.

• In-person meetings supported by additional engagement opportunities, such as a webcast with questions, is up by 21% compared to last year across the FTSE350 and AIM100.
• Pre-submission of questions to the board is still a frequently used tool across the FTSE350, but not the AIM100. It is currently up by 16% in the FTSE350 compared to 2023.
• Between January to March, 34 FTSE350 companies held AGMs and none received more than 20% opposition to their remuneration report compared to 8% in 2023, 18% in 2022 and 16% in 2021 for the same period.

Georgeson's Kevin O'Neill also shared some early insights from the UK chapter of the 2024 European AGM Season Review, highlighting trends in shareholder vote results for remuneration and share issuance resolutions.

UK Dividend Monitor

UK dividends rose 11.2% on a headline basis in Q2 2024 to a record £36.7bn, owing to large one-off payments that saw them perform ahead of our forecast. Excluding one-off payments, regular dividends were up 1.0% on a constant-currency basis to £32.5bn in Q2, in line with our expectations.

The Dividend Monitor tracks significant trends in UK equity income and provides a quarterly forecast for UK pay-outs, offering readers a comprehensive and accurate analysis on UK dividends.

Click below to read the Q2 2024 edition.

Read Dividend Monitor