RBS shareholders set to voice anger

12 April 2012

Beleaguered Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders are to voice their fury after a catastrophic year for the bank at its annual meeting in Edinburgh.

RBS has posted the biggest UK loss in corporate history - £24.1bn - and is now majority-owned by the taxpayer after a £20bn bail-out last October.

The State's 70% share will be formally confirmed at a separate meeting, although this may rise as high as 95% after a deal to dump more than £300bn in "toxic" assets into a taxpayer-backed insurance scheme.

For normal investors, the business of the meeting is all but irrelevant as the major decisions have already been taken by UK Financial Investments, the body which manages the public stakes in the bank.

Shareholders will have the chance, however, to voice their anger at the dilution of their stake and question the current management team on the progress made in repairing the damage.

This was caused by bad debt charges of £7bn and a £16.2bn writedown on its disastrous acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 and its US operations.

Earlier this week, UKFI said it would register a protest vote against former chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin's hugely controversial £703,000 pension at the meeting.

The body will reject the RBS remuneration report because the then-board decided to grant Sir Fred and another director, Johnny Cameron, full pensions despite retiring early.

UKFI chief executive John Kingman said: "UKFI is not satisfied that it was in the company's interest - and therefore UKFI's as a value-oriented shareholder. UKFI therefore cannot vote in favour of it."

This vote will not however snatch away Sir Fred's pension. It is a symbolic gesture, as the vote on the remuneration report is an advisory vote and not legally binding on the company.

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