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Published
Jan 27, 2017
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French Connection non-execs to be replaced

Published
Jan 27, 2017

French Connection CEO and chairman Stephen Marks may be determined to stay in control of the struggling retailer but he appears to be responding to investor concerns over two non-executive directors.


French Connection has been lossmaking for several years



UK press reports said Dean Murray and Claire Kent would be replaced and that the firm has written to concerned investors to say it has begun a search for new independent directors.

As Fashion Network reported earlier this week, a trio of unhappy activist investors, including Gatemore Capital, have been calling for Murray and Kent to go. Gatemore said their status as independents has been compromised as they have been directors for nine years. It also complained that their tenure has included an unprecedented dip in the firm’s fortunes.

Corporate governance best practice in the UK views a non-executive tenure of nine years as too long and also frowns on anyone holding a combined CEO and chairman’s role, although Marks, who founded the firm, has resisted calls to split the two roles he holds.

Marks owns a 42% stake and Gatemore holds 8% in the company that has been lossmaking since the last decade.

Liad Meidar, managing partner and chief investment officer at Gatemore, told The Telegraph that the two non-executive directors were "complicit in presiding over the company's tremendous decline in value."

He also urged the firm to put recent board recruit Christos Angelides, previously of Next and Abercrombie & Fitch, in charge of the search.

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