Market Watch: Rose ready for fight over dual role

Published on Saturday 4 July 2009 14:41

MARKS & Spencer boss Sir Stuart Rose faces a battle with shareholders this week as the campaign to split his executive chairman role intensifies.

Rose will be forced to confront his critics at the high street giant's annual meeting on Wednesday. The City is gearing up for a bruising encounter after the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, whose members have combined assets of more than 95bn, last week filed a shareholder motion calling for the appointment of a chairman to be brought forward to July 2010.

Under the current plans, a new chief executive will not be hired until next year and Sir Stuart will remain as chairman until 31 July, 2011.

However, outrage over his dual role has failed to die down since it was announced in April last year, and last week Pirc, the influential shareholder advisory group, also threw its weight behind the campaign to rethink Sir Stuart's role.

So far Sir Stuart has refused to cave into the criticism and is hoping that encouraging sales figures revealed last week for the 13 weeks to 27 June will sweeten disgruntled investors after they beat both City forecasts and previous quarterly sales.

Like-for-like sales slowed by 1.4 per cent during the period, but this was viewed as an improvement by the City. Analysts at Numis Securities increased their M&S profits forecast by 26m as a result while shares staged a 4 per cent rally on Wednesday.

The City will keep a keen eye on the housebuilding sector this week as several major firms including Barratt Developments and Persimmon prepare to deliver their latest trading updates. Last month there were signs of a return in investor confidence to the sector, which has been among the biggest victims of the recession. Taylor Wimpey in particular sparked excitement when it announced in June a 73 per cent surge in orders.

However, renewed uncertainty has since entered the market with one leading analyst, Robin Hardy at KBC Peel Hunt, warning that last month's optimism was premature.

"The market is still weak and is woefully short of the levels of mortgage finance needed to restore balance or a positive environment," he said.

WEEK AHEAD

TOMORROW

St Modwen Properties (interims)

TUESDAY

Persimmon (trading update); N Brown (AGM)

WEDNESDAY

Marks & Spencer (AGM)

THURSDAY

Barratt Developments (trading updates); Robert Wiseman Dairies (AGM)

FRIDAY

Bovis Homes (trading update)