ISS urges London Stock Exchange (LSE) investors not to back Sir Christopher Hohn’s TCI motion to sack Ronald Brydon

An influential shareholder advisory group is urging London Stock Exchange investors to reject calls by one of Britain’s best performing hedge funds to sack its chairman.

ISS says LSE shareholders should vote against a motion to remove Donald Brydon.

The vote is due to take place on 19 December at an emergency shareholder meeting brought by activist manager TCI.

TCI is the fund manager for Sir Christopher Hohn’s Children’s Investment Fund, which owns a five per cent stake in the stock exchange.

Hohn has been angered by the ousting of chief executive Xavier Rolet and believes Brydon has managed a “poor process” in succession management.

But in a share note issued today, ISS said “perceived” corporate governance failures had “not been sufficiently substantiated at this time”.

Read more: TCI sets out reasons to oust the London Stock Exchange’s chairman

TCI believes Rolet’s recent expedited dismissal came without the LSE board “providing any good reasons”. The hedge fund said finding a new “world class” CEO will be a challenge under Brydon’s chairmanship.

With regards to Brydon’s history of ousting chief executives, TCI will refer to five incidents stretching back to 1996. The first was at the LSE itself, as Brydon was a board member when chief executive Michael Lawrence was fired, but the examples also cover his time at Allied Domecq, Scottish Power, Smith’s and Sage.

Read more: Advisory profits halve at London Stock Exchange hedge fund agitator TCI