UK: Grant Thornton's FTSE350 Corporate Governance Review

Grant Thornton has published its FTSE350 Corporate Governance Review 2009: see here (pdf).

The Review examines companies' compliance with the Combined Code and disclosure in this regard. It notes that 47% of companies reported that they were fully compliant with the Code. The quality of disclosure remains, nevertheless, an issue according to the Review, with only 29% of those companies claiming full compliance providing the disclosures needed to support their claim. Amongst the other finding reported are:

• The average FTSE 350 board has 5.2 non-executive directors compared to 3.3 executive directors, although 80 companies did not have at least half the board made up of independent non-executive directors for the entire year.
• 31 companies, including eight in the FTSE 100, did not disclose who on the audit committee had recent and relevant financial experience.
• Three FTSE 100 and 13 Mid 250 companies changed their auditors during the year.

Note: For earlier reviews see (in pdf): 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 |