Shareholders at BSkyB, are set to oppose a move by parent company, News Corporation, to buy-back shares in the satellite group.
According to press reports, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, hopes to raise the shareholding of his company in BSkyB from 35% to 37%, however this is set to meet widespread opposition at the group’s annual general meeting, according to a number of its leading independent shareholders.
One shareholder, Isis, said the buy-back move was undoing the “very impressive work” that Sky had undertaken in other areas to improve its corporate governance. Richard Singleton, director of corporate governance at Isis told the Independent: “The way they’re doing this has set alarm bells ringing. It seems to be a case of using BSkyB money to increase News Corps’ share holding.”
Sky also plans to put a ‘whitewash resolution’ in place that would effectively exempt News Corp from taking place in the buy-back, by stopping the group from using its 35% majority share holding on the issue.
However, News Corp has previously made it clear that it does not want to participate in the buy-back, stirring accusations of a ‘creeping takeover’ of the company by its biggest shareholder, said the Independent.
Last week Murdoch said he would be tempted to consider a buy-out of the UK based company but he did warn that unfavourable currency issues would make the purchase price about $12 billion (£6.73 billion) too expensive for the group (see Murdoch Predicts Strong Profit Growth For BSkyB).
Related Links
