Shareholder anger spills over at Lloyds AGM as Noel Edmonds crashes the bank’s house party
Lloyds Banking Group stole the title of the year’s most dramatic AGM yesterday, as investors took the lender’s board to task and TV personality Noel Edmonds made a vocal appearance.
The meeting began with one angry shareholder accosting Lloyds’ chairman Norman Blackwell, shouting: “You’re a liar and a cheat.”
Hostile exchanges followed between management and shareholders, covering ground ranging from fraud to the mistreatment of small businesses. This was a particularly sore subject for Edmonds who claims HBOS, which was later bought by Lloyds, destroyed his firm Unique Group over a decade ago.
Read more: No deal: Noel Edmonds’ offer to accept £10m compensation was turned down by Lloyds
“Your brand values are trashed, the black horse has become a symbol of the dark forces in banking,” Edmonds said. “You boasted about a landmark year, some might say it’s been more like a skidmark year.”
Lloyds has now completed a restructuring, a year after the government sold its stake following the bank’s 2008 bailout. It had been clawing its way out of the instability created by a disastrous acquisition of HBOS in 2008, which then left it open to further scandal when it emerged that HBOS’s Reading Branch – which handled small business loans – had been committing fraud and asset-stripping its customers.
Edmonds added:
If you want to turn it into a game show, the way you treat us, I would call it ‘Pointless’. If you want to turn it into ‘Jail Or No Jail’, you are going in the right direction.
Blackwell replied dryly: “This isn’t a show, Mr Edmonds, it’s an AGM.”
Six people, including two HBOS bankers, were jailed in relation to the Reading fraud last year for more than 47 years between them. The National Crime Agency launched a fresh probe into the bank earlier this year.
Lloyds has apologised and set aside £100m to compensate victims, but Edmonds said the bank was failing to keep its promise that it would pay out any foreseeable losses over and above the compensation due.
The bank is still involved in a number of legal battles. Shareholders ranging from blue-chip firms to individual investors are waiting for the court’s judgement on a massive £550m claim against Lloyds for the HBOS takeover, while several victims of the Reading fraud – including Edmonds – are still fighting for damages.
Read more: From vicars to City titans: The names behind £550m Lloyds legal battle
Investors showed their displeasure with the bank’s bosses through their votes. More than 20 per cent of shareholders objected to the remuneration report, which saw chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio take home a total pay packet of £6.42m last year.
This was more than a 10 per cent rise from the year prior, and he is due to get a two per cent rise in his base salary alone for the year ahead.
Advisory group ISS recommended before the AGM that shareholders vote down the pay report, saying there was an imbalance between “pay and relative performance”.
Lloyds, however, said in February that it had experienced a “landmark year” as profits hit a record £5.3bn.
Read more: Lloyds and PwC face £55m court case from motor dealer who says the firms forced it out of business