The war for CEO pay in the UK

One scoop to get you started: Vodafone and CK Hutchison they are close to agreement a combination of £15bn of their UK telecoms business that would create the country’s biggest mobile operator, with 28m customers, three people familiar with the matter said.

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Executive pay divides the UK

Unileveris the boss coming Hein Schumacher it was to lead to a new beginning.

Instead, it led a shareholder rebellion.

In a rare rebuke over executive pay Wednesday, about 60% of shareholders in the underperforming consumer-staple giant rejected a plan pay Schumacher a basic salary before bonuses of €1.85 million, which is about a fifth more than his predecessor Alan Joe.

The votes are non-binding, which means the package could still pass. But the extent of the resistance from Unilever’s stakeholders is still noteworthy.

The vote is one of only 13 such rejections in a FTS extension 100 group since 2000 and follows a similar revolt to the UK education group pearson after it was revealed that the CEO Andy Bird he took home $8.5 million last year.

The subject of executive pay has become increasingly onerous as have the earnings of bosses at some of the largest companies in the UK it continued to climb despite the cost-of-living crisis. These figures can only soar higher as regulators and politicians scramble to make London a more attractive destination for talent and businesses.

Like Helen Thomas of the Financial Times writes: “the City seems incredibly torn between European social angst and US capitalist excess”.

London Stock Exchange Head Julia Hoggett on Wednesday he argued that raising pay is necessary to keep talent and companies in the UK.

“The alternative is to continue to stand by as our biggest exports become skills, talent, tax revenues and the companies that generate them,” he said.

Softbanksthe decision to include the national champion in the list Arm in New York last month was particularly painful for the UK, which had spent months trying to get the company to go public locally. But there are others already listed who have considered moving to New York, including Shellas the FT revealed.

UK regulators they proposed the most sweeping changes to London’s directory rules since the 1980s in a drastic attempt to hang on to companies and attract new ones. These include removing the requirement for companies to have three years of audited accounts and merging London’s standard and premium markets into one category.

The changes would also be “more lax” on dual-class stock, which gives company founders greater voting rights than ordinary shareholders.

But, like Lex Notessuch changes could erode certain investor protections.

Schwartz faces Carlyle with open ears

When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March, Harvey Schwartzthe former Goldman Sachs president hired by Carley group to restore it to its former glory, he had the opportunity to showcase his Wall Street experience to his new private equity colleagues.

The upheaval was unlikely to escalate into a crisis, he told Carlyle’s top businessmen, because links between the failing firms had been minimized since the 2008 crash.

While his views on the banking crisis were clear, his plan to revive the acquiring group has since abrupt departure of its predecessor Kewsong Lee last year remains mostly unclearalso to the company’s insiders.

Since arriving in mid-February, Schwartz has held forensic reviews of each of the New York and Washington-based group’s businesses with their leadership. While the meetings dragged on for hours and Schwartz arrived with detailed questions, his conclusions are unknown, people familiar with the matter told DD’s Antoine Gara and William Louch.

He posed as an operations guru with the know-how to improve Carlyle’s structure and get the company back to growth after a period of weak fundraising and leadership turmoil. But he has promised not to second-guess the investments of his best businessmen.

“His message was very ‘help me help you,’” said one person involved in the meetings. Schwartz also promised not to second-guess investments.

Several insiders have said that the phrase “I’m not an investor” has become a common refrain. He was not on the investment committee of Carlyle’s flagship acquisition funds, sources said.

Insiders believe Schwartz is gathering the information it needs before embarking on a significant restructuring of the group.

Company reviews “are received like interviews for your work,” said one person familiar with the meetings.

Schwartz is expected to attempt to better integrate units that had long been run as independent fiefdoms and to identify a central leadership group. He also has to decide which activities, from lending to sustainable investing, can be expanded and which should be abandoned.

Carlyle’s first-quarter earnings due Thursday morning will likely showcase the challenges Schwartz faces and give him a chance to discuss his thinking. Expectations are that details on the renovation will arrive later this year.

‘No regrets’: Lottomatica’s bet on growth

Apollo he rolled the dice Wednesday when he listed his gambling group Lottomatica in Milan.

Unfortunately for the private equity firm, luck it wasn’t on his side.

Lottomatica shares fell in the morning and closed about 9 percent down at 8.2 euros per share. This comes after the group had already valued its initial public offering at the bottom of the range at 9 euros per share, to value the company at 2.26 billion euros, well below expectations at the start of this year.

However, the debut marks the largest Italian IPO in more than a year and the second largest IPO ever in the gambling industry, according to LottomaticaCEO William Angelozzi.

“We are listing at a discounted valuation, but are targeting long-term growth,” Angelozzi told the FT. “We have no regrets.”

There have been few recent listings in Europe, and the handful of companies that braved choppy markets for IPOs this year haven’t necessarily provided encouraging signs. Lottomatica may not be the only one to reverse the trend.

Yet some companies are moving forward, including another in Italy. based in Milan Designer brands it said it would go ahead with its listing at a price that values ​​the company at 293 million euros, well below what it had expected.

The work moves

• Credit Suissethe former head of an investment bank Christian Meissner it is joining BDT and MSD partnersGoldman’s veteran-run investment and advisory firm Byron Trot AND Gregg Lemkau, as a partner in London. Meissner became a partner with Lemkau at Goldman in 2002before working on Lehman Brothers AND Bank of America.

• Goldman moved the head of investment banking services Kim Posnet heads its global technology, media and telecommunications group and co-leads TMT M&A Sam Britton co-chair the global TMT, according to a note seen by DD. Gold partner Aasem Khalil will assume the role of Posnett.

• Private Equity Lawyer Samantha McGonigle has joined Paul Hastings as a partner in London. She had previously worked at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.*

*This has been updated to clarify McGonigle’s past experience

Smart readings

Wall Street 2.0 Bankers’ pay is on the rise in Saudi Arabia, it appears to be taking advantage of falling pay in the West. But politics and culture collide pose a challengewrites Bloomberg.

The Epstein Files, Part 2 A treasure trove of documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal reveals deeper connections between the disgraced financier and individuals from former Harvard president Lawrence Summers to filmmaker Woody Allen.

Triple threat The trio of bank failures since March they have one thing in common: KPMG. The crashes have brought greater scrutiny over the Big Four auditor and his role in the financial services industry, reports the FT.

News review

PacWest shares tumble 50% as it explores potential sale (FT)

Barclays chairman defends ‘undersatisfactory’ share price during cantankerous AGM (FT)

UK opens probe into Adobe’s $20 billion bid for Figma (FT)

UniCredit’s Orcel downplays talk of BPM deal as profits hit record (FT)

Pfizer will begin selling its stake in Advil maker Haleon within months, the CFO says (FT)

BNP Paribas profits surged after Bank of the West windfall gains (FT)

Thiel-backed billionaire Spac is said to be close to merging with Hyphen (Bloomberg)