Virgin Media O2 owner faces rebellion

ONE of the owners of British telecoms giant Virgin Media O2 faces a showdown with shareholders over plans to move its base to Bermuda.

Liberty Global, which is controlled by John Malone, plans to change its place of incorporation from the UK to Bermuda in a move it says will “reduce administrative complexities”.

The relocation will lower the threshold required for key shareholder votes from its current level of 75pc to 50pc, handing more power to Mr Malone and chief executive Mike Fries. City sources said independent shareholders plan to vote against the move at an extraordinary general meeting later this year.

The backlash threatens to cause a major headache for Liberty, which merged Virgin Media with Telefonica’s O2 in 2021 to create a broadband and mobile giant with around 48m UK customers.

The company, which also has significant stakes in Vodafone and ITV, is already facing a revolt over executive pay and governance practices ahead of its annual shareholder meeting, which is scheduled for June 14. Influential advisory groups Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis have called for investors to vote down plans to elect Miranda Curtis, a British non-executive director, to the board.

In a report seen by The Telegraph, ISS said a vote against Ms Curtis’s appointment was warranted as a way of objecting to the company’s “multi-class structure with disparate voting rights”.

ISS raised concerns about Liberty’s complex share system, which offers some shareholders much greater sway over decisions.