Estate agency giant LSL was forced to deal with a shareholder revolt at its AGM when more than a quarter voted against the re-election of a key director.

News of the rebellion came to light when the company issued “an update” on its annual meeting, which actually took place a few months ago, in June.

The update was required because 25% of shareholders opposed the re-election of Gaby Appleton as a board director.

Unhappy over governance

They were said to be unhappy with the way ‘governance matters’ had been handled when she was Senior Independent Director. Appleton, who is a senior executive with events company RX Global, has served on the board since 2019.

In the statement, the company says: “It is understood that the vote against Gaby’s re-election was reflective of her position as Senior Independent Director (“SID”) at a time when shareholders had raised issues with the Board on governance matters.

“At the meetings with the Chair, the shareholders confirmed that they were comfortable with the governance arrangements in place following the appointment of Adrian Collins as Chair on 1 May 2024,” the company said.

Board apppointments

LSL added that James Mack took on the role of SID in March replacing Appleton, and a further independent non-executive director, Michael Stoop, had also been appointed to the board

In May, just before the AGM, fund manager specialist Adrian Collins took over as Chairman to replace David Barral, who quit the role after less than a year.

Barral had taken over from veteran Bill Shannon last year as the company announced that its entire estate agency network of 183 branches would become franchises.

LSL reported strong results for the first half of the year. In April. it announced a £7 million share buyback plan as its performance picked up rapidly.

The company also launched a new ‘hybrid associate model’ for self-employed agents recently.