Marks & Spencer steps up shareholder democracy campaign

Marks & Spencer has teamed up with the Interactive Investor platform to give thousands of people who don’t own shares the opportunity to vote at annual general meetings.

This move is the latest in the retailer’s ‘Share Your Voice’ campaign – supported by The Mail on Sunday, This is Money’s sister title – which aims to boost shareholder democracy by making it easier for private investors to have a say in how the businesses they own are run.

M&S chairman Archie Norman wants to improve ties between companies and small shareholders using so-called nominee accounts on platforms such as Interactive Investor, where their holdings are pooled with those of other savers.

This is a popular, low-cost way to own shares, but companies do not know the identities of the nominated investors and cannot communicate directly with them.

“Nominees make up 40 percent of the market and investor platforms are growing, so if we don’t act, the bond between companies and private shareholders will be lost,” said Norman.

“However people own their shares, they have the right to have a say and hold their boards accountable.”

The pilot project with Interactive Investor, the UK’s second largest investment site, aims to increase shareholder participation in annual meetings.

Previously, only private investors who owned shares in their own name could vote at the annual M&S meetings. That right is now being extended to M&S shareholders on the Interactive Investor platform.

The company has held digital-only meetings since 2020, with three times as many shareholders participating compared to previous in-person meetings.

M&S has also joined forces with a number of trade associations, including The Quoted Companies Alliance, to push for modernization of the Companies Act to give shareholders a greater say in the companies they invest in.

You can sign the petition at petitie.parliament.uk/petitions/636051