Tycoons in the Lions’ Den

CHARGES of corporate shenanigans are currently producing a rich vein of testimony before Commons select committees. The publicity shy deputy chairman and founder of Sport Direct, Mike Ashley, is virtually an unknown figure to the public, aside from the snatched photographs in the stands at Newcastle United.

He has been a silent, sullen presence at annual general meetings, avoids direct dealings with the press and analysts, and deploys an old fashioned publicity agent – who demands email questions in writing – before responding to queries.

He is almost the polar opposite of another retailer in the public eye Sir Philip Green who under normal circumstances relishes daily, salty telephone sparing with his critics.

What is useful about the current set of hearings on Sports Direct, BHS, pensions et al is that they remove business people from the shadows and expose them to scrutiny.

The big criticism of committees of MPs is that the questioning is often inept and illinformed and they lack the ability of the US Congress’s investigating committees to subpoena every bit of evidence out there.

Nevertheless, they seem to be doing a creditable job at present. In Ashley’s case the Business, Innovation & Skills Select Committee had taken the trouble to get Unite union evidence together before questioning Ashley. The Sports Direct boss took the most sensible course and owned up to many of the sins uncovered. He suggested that his company had grown so fast that management had failed to establish the kind of employment practices which are standard in the retail sector. He is promising to make good on payments to staff that fell below the minimum wage because of delays in exit security checks at his warehouses. Contrition and the promise to clean things up seemed to do the trick for a number of MPs.

Ashley was not the only mystery figure on parade before the Commons. Hitting the spotlight was dealmaker Robin Saunders of Clearbrook Capital, one of the financial fixers involved in some of Sir Philip Green’s deals. Hearing from her first hand is also unusual. As leading figure at Oxford University’s Centre for Corporate Reputations she must recognise the importance of being open. It turns out she was instrumental in introducing Green to the fraudster Paul Sutton (one of the middlemen in the BHS sale) who Green expelled from his office.

The joint hearings by the BIS committee and Works & Pensions Committee into the sale of BHS to serial bankrupt Donald Chappell are providing all kinds of insights.

We have seen one set of advisers representing Chappell hiding behind confidentiality. Another, including lawyers Linklaters, who represented Green, have waived confidentiality and provided all the information they can within the confines of client privilege.

Public hearings are not just useful because citizens want to see the good and the great taken down. They also perform an extraordinary useful function. The battering Scottishborn Pfizer boss Ian Read took from the BIS select panel at the time of the bid for AstraZeneca almost certainly led to it being called off, despite support from 10 Downing Street.

Some of this might not be necessary if we had a better culture of activist investor involvement in Britain and AGMs were open to broadcast media. Instead we have public companies – including Burberry, Sports Direct and G4S – who in the recent past have sought to restrict entry of written media.

The culture of circling the wagons needs to be smashed if we are to have a more effective and open governance. Moreover, the very biggest deals of national economic importance, such as the ‘merger of equals’ between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse, should be scrutinised in the Commons. That would be healthier for democracy, business, investors and citizens.

Sure of Shell…

WITH its share price languishing and the disposal price for oil assets constrained by crude prices, Shell needs to show that it has a plan for cutting debt after its £37bn acquisition of BG Group. It cannot control oil prices, although they have started to move in its favour. But it can deliver on BG cost synergies and has added an extra $1bn to its previous target of $3.5bn.

The key is going to be the divestment of $30bn of assets, across ten territories, in the next several years with a down payment of up to $8bn in 2016. The aim is a fleeter-offoot, gas-dominated Shell which is able to operate more effective with relatively low oil prices. The jury is still out on the ability of chief executive Ben van Beurden to deliver.

There was enough red meat in an investor update to lift the shares by 3pc.

In the pink

AS a shareholder victim of HMV’s crash into administration in January 2013, it is fascinating to watch the revival of a revered brand.

Part of the formula is retro with the group targeting the sale of 1.5m vinyl LPs in the current calendar year. Among the exclusive pressings commissioned is Never Mind The B ****** s, Here’s The Sex Pistols in pink vinyl and The Clash on green vinyl. How the world turns.