Follow The Firm

Examining the companies, directors and commercial deals that deserve greater scrutiny.

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Putting this back here- add your name to this and send to any of your friends of the Isle of Wight. It's a really important one that we've been following here at Follow the Firm and we will certainly keep pushing.

https://t.co/e871vDCFFD

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Reading this piece earlier this week, reminded us that BP has had so much change at the top lately. It makes you start to wonder what’s really going on inside the boardroom.

It’s now made Ian Tyler permanent chair after his predecessor was pushed out earlier this year over governance and conduct concerns.

New CEO. New chair. Another reset.

At some point, repeated leadership upheaval stops looking like a personnel issue and starts looking like a governance problem.

Now BP has to show this latest reshuffle actually changes something.

https://t.co/MvKnWe8TVc

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

It’s about Red Funnel’s new owner, Njord Partners. The petition is asking for more transparency around who ultimately controls the company, how major decisions are made and what the long-term plans are for such an important Island service.

There have also been wider questions raised about governance across Njord’s business interests, which is why people are asking for clearer answers.

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Putting this back here- add your name to this and send to any of your friends of the Isle of Wight. It's a really important one that we've been following here at Follow the Firm and we will certainly keep pushing.

https://t.co/e871vDCFFD

[Martin Lewis @MartinSLewis]

Would you set up a business 50-50 with a friend?

Sorry about the sound quality, the captions should help

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Remember Corporate Travel Management?

Its shares finally started trading again today after more than a year suspended.

They fell more than 80%.

The company has spent the past year dealing with the fallout from its UK accounting scandal, including roughly £118m of revenue reversals, customer refunds and major leadership changes.

There’s a pretty simple lesson here: governance failures can look like an internal company problem right up until investors finally get the bill.

And this was a company entrusted with major public-sector contracts.

https://t.co/wETU8kGz4q

[Transparency International @anticorruption]

Money is essential to politics. But when political finance lacks transparency and accountability, it can jeopardise the integrity of elections.

Our new report examines political finance systems across 17 countries in Asia. Here's what we found ⬇️ https://t.co/oL9MQidOtJ

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

@SophiesNewWorld You're right @SophiesNewWorld. I am going to email them to suggest some wording changes, as it's a really important issue. Happy to take any recommendations if you want to message.

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Red Funnel is a vital Isle of Wight link. After the 2025 change of ownership, we want answers. Add your name if you do too.

https://t.co/e871vDCFFD

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Travelodge is having a pretty rough time of it.

The company is dealing with serious questions over hotel security, its chief executive has stepped down, staff are being retrained and policies are being rewritten.

At the same time, the business is carrying more than £600m of external debt and reported a £70m loss last year.

It’s one of those stories that shows how quickly a problem on the ground can become a much bigger corporate issue.

If the systems designed to keep customers safe aren’t working, that’s not just an operational problem. Eventually, it becomes a leadership one too.

https://t.co/avt8471oTw

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Read more here:

https://t.co/NOQq01BdtV

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

How much responsibility should an investor take for what happens several layers down in a portfolio company?

New analysis looks at Njord Partners and its investment in telecoms group RETN.

And asks how much visibility should investors have over the contracts, counterparties and risks sitting underneath their investments?

Being several layers removed on an organisation chart shouldn’t mean being several layers removed from responsibility.

[Peter Geoghegan @PeterKGeoghegan]

🔴 NEW: Special advisers accepted hospitality from lobbyists and businesses 700 times + since Labour took power

Glastonbury tickets, Taylor Swift, UFC fights + more

New on Democracy for Sale: https://t.co/nL89BqFuAN

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

One thing this story really underlines is how narrow we often make the idea of corporate accountability.

We tend to focus on the company that fails. But large businesses rarely operate in isolation. They have lawyers, auditors, advisers, lenders and consultants around them.

So when something goes badly wrong, the question shouldn’t just be “what did the company do?” It should also be: who was around the table, what did they know, and what responsibility did they have to challenge it?

That’s why the SRA investigation into Gunnercooke is worth watching.

Accountability should follow the whole chain, not stop at the front door of the company.

https://t.co/BzLvaYDvhC

[Karl Flinders @Karlfl]

BREAKING: Post Office awards £14m contract to Escher WITHOUT competitive tender — after Escher challenged losing the £169m Horizon replacement bid to OneView Commerce.
Legal expert: "Obviously been a procurement screw-up"
#PostOfficeScandal https://t.co/q3f5f98Cxn

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

For years, firms have been able to treat bullying or harassment as an HR problem, while regulators focused on whether someone was financially “fit and proper”.

The FCA is now finally saying the two can’t really be separated.

If someone behaves badly enough towards colleagues that it raises questions about their judgment or integrity, that should matter when they move to another regulated firm.

Feels obvious when you put it like that, but the City has taken a long time to get here.

https://t.co/aSnxVJUpKq

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

Hard to look at numbers like this and not ask what customers have actually got in return. Billions paid out, huge amounts of water still lost to leaks, and households left paying more.

It looks like people are finally actually asking if the system is really working. The question is, what do we do to change it and make meaningful difference?

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

This is pretty absurd.

The UK has spent years pushing its offshore territories to reveal who really owns companies registered there.

But in places like the Cayman Islands and BVI, getting that information can still mean proving you have a “legitimate interest”, paying fees, filling out lengthy applications and then potentially waiting months for an answer. In the BVI, the organisation you’re investigating can even be told who is asking.

That isn’t meaningful transparency. If ownership information is technically available but deliberately difficult to access, the secrecy problem hasn’t really been solved.

Good investigation from The Guardian.

https://t.co/OzxWthHkLn

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

@premnsikka This is the bit that always gets me. We hear endless promises about transparency, but if nobody can easily see who ultimately owns a company or where the money is going, how much does any of it really mean?

[Follow The Firm @Follow_the_Firm]

@TransparencyUK @PeterKGeoghegan Thank you for doing this series @TransparencyUK