Layoffs to kick off 2023
For some, it wasn’t such a happy new year. This January kicked off with some of the world’s largest corporations planning major employee layoffs.
Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy announced in a public note to staff that more than 18,000 jobs will be cut early this year.
However, Amazon is not the only company experiencing layoffs this year. This January, American software company Salesforce announced its restructuring plan which will reduce its workforce by 10%.
Tech companies aren’t alone in cutting employee headcount. According to Forbes, some of the largest financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Barclays will all be joining the 2023 layoffs.
It’s Capricorn season!
An extraordinary general meeting (EGM) is set to take place on the 1st of February for British oil and gas company Capricorn Energy.
The proposal by activist shareholder Palliser Capital calls to replace seven of Capricorn Energy’s directors with six new nominees by Palliser, and will also oppose the plan to merge with Israeli oil and gas company, NewMed.
However, Capricorn Energy said in an open letter to shareholders that the plan is based on “several outdated and incorrect facts and assumptions” and has “real concerns that shareholders who rely on the Plan, without understanding the material risks and errors in its analysis, will likely be voting for value destruction”.
Shareholders want more facts about tax
At their 2022 AGMs, Cisco, Microsoft and Amazon all received significant shareholder engagement demanding greater reporting of their tax transparency.
The proposals stated that companies avoiding tax cost the US government billions of dollars every year. To ensure investors that this was not happening, shareholders requested that the mentioned companies produce more transparent tax reports in line with the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Tax Standard.
Shareholders of Cisco, Microsoft and Amazon voted 27%, 27% and 21% respectively in favour of the proposals, to which the head of stewardship at Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) said, “These votes send a clear signal that investors expect to be provided with meaningful data on an issue of clear financial materiality.”
According to PIRC, shareholder support for companies to provide better transparency is beginning to increase worldwide.
Five days into January
The High Pay Centre calculates that, merely five days into January, the CEOs of the FTSE 100 companies will have already earned more money than the median UK worker will be paid all year. The think tank claims that this is after only 30 hours of work.
According to figures provided by the Office for National Statistics, the FTSE 100 CEO pay ratio is 103:1, meaning that FTSE 100 CEOs will be paid 103 times more than the UK average full-time worker.
Considering the decline in current living standards, director of HPC said:
An interesting start to the year…
