Cheers! Wetherspoon boss gets 11% top-up

IT IS safe to say Wetherspoon founder Tim Martin will not be expecting a Christmas card from stock market purists this year.

The mulleted publican has long stoked investor ire by thumbing his nose at City conventions. The pub chain’s annual meeting will take place behind closed doors this week and shareholder advisory firm Glass Lewis is riled.

Of chief concern is that finance director Ben Whitley, who has been with the group for two decades, is picking up a fourth consecutive annual pay rise.

Whitley is on a modest £212,000 basic salary but Glass Lewis urges investors to vote down the 11 per cent rise given Covid has left publicans staring glumly at the bottom of their glasses. Will Whitley find reason for a festive tipple after the meeting?

IMAGES of shoppers bustling around the West End last week can’t mask the fact that Central London largely remains a ghost town.

Among the victims is commercial property landlord Shaftesbury, which has seen its shares fall 40 per cent this year as office workers and tourists desert the capital.

Investors will be looking closely at the value the business puts on its prize assets across Chinatown, Soho, Fitzrovia and Covent Garden in this week’s annual results.