Link: Corporate governance - Do you walk the talk?
Yesterday Hvaler Invest said NO thank you to a suggested new deal for a selected number of board members and the situation got even more attention than anticipated.
Folketrygdfondet, the biggest shareholder in Norway, and number 3 shareholder with 8.2% of the shares in LINK also said very clearly, "No, thank you". Why? It's simply against any reasonable corporate governance. We have also received lots of reactions from smaller shareholders today, all of them saying, thanks for protecting us smaller shareholders, we support you. Nobody has suggested this is a good idea.
What about some other big shareholders?
Only Alfred Berg and Sundt have stated openly they will vote in favour, representing a total of 11.2% of the shares in the company.
Odin (#1 shareholder) have not decided and DNB (#2) have said they are sceptical, due to the breach of the NUES recommendations, but not yet decided. These two represent some 19.4% of the votes.
We hope that all the above decide to vote against, either because of corporate governance, or the more operational reasons we stated in our letter yesterday. Both valid reasons in their own right, if you ask us 😊
Additionally, we have to say that we are not impressed by the responses we have read in the media from the Chairman of the Board, or the chairperson of the nomination committee. “No comment” is not an acceptable answer from either, both having a central role in the suggestion.
On another note, there are 0 out of 294 companies with strategy committees and options as remuneration for this work on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Do you get our point?
The solution:
We suggest you simply withdraw the proposal or alternatively compensate this highly unusual committee with the same nominal amount as other committees in LINK. This means 100,000 NOK to the leader and something like 70,000 NOK per member. It's more than enough.
As stated on the LINK Homepage, and repeated in a Dagens Næringsliv article today: "I LINK Mobility er vårt styre dedikert til en eksemplarisk corporate governance og transparens. Våre retningslinjer er raffinert for å være på linje med "best practice" i industrien og juridiske standarder."
Please, read these sentences one more time…
So, our question to you at LINK: Do you walk the talk?
If you agree with us, please vote in advance against item 6 on the agenda today. Here is the form that tells you how.
Best regards,
David and Sverre
Hvaler Invest AS
Lillestrøm, Norway
14.10.26
Disclaimer:
Hvaler Invest is a significant shareholder so you cannot trust us (or perhaps you can?)