HSBC has delivered a sharp rebuke to Eric Knight by dismissing the activist investor’s demands for a shake-up in the bank’s corporate governance and rejecting calls for an independent strategic review. Simon Robertson, the bank’s senior independent director, yesterday told Mr Knight that HSBC’s non-executive directors unanimously supported Stephen Green as executive chairman and believed there was no need for a strategy review.
The decision is a setback for Mr Knight, whose investment firm, Knight Vinke, this month launched a wide-ranging attack on HSBC, blaming the bank’s corporate governance and global spread of businesses for its poor share price performance in recent years. In the past few weeks, Mr Knight has been lobbying HSBC’s largest shareholders for support for his campaign.
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