Publicis wins vote for Arthur Sadoun to head single board after seeing off critics | News

Publicis Groupe shareholders have voted to again a journey to a unmarried board, with 95% goodwill at the once a year basic assembly (AGM) in Paris.

Alternatively, there used to be a minor insurrection on company governance areas over the French company crew’s choice to position Arthur Sadoun in sole fee as chairman and leading government.

Shareholders licensed Sadoun’s appointment to his fresh position as 77.6% of votes solid had been to be preferred however 22.4% had been in opposition to, plus there have been some abstentions.

Even so, Publicis famous that all the votes on the assembly had been “overwhelmingly in favour”.

It’s understood a eminent proxy advisory crew, Institutional Shareholder Products and services (ISS), really helpful traders didn’t again Sadoun’s fresh position — regardless of Publicis out-performing competitors and its reserve worth smashing data within the terminating yr.

Some company governance advisers insist on theory that the jobs of chair and CEO must be stored independent.

Prior to now, Publicis had two forums: a supervisory board, chaired by way of Maurice Lévy; and a control board, chaired by way of Sadoun, who has been CEO since 2017.

Lévy strike out at unnamed “proxy advisers” in his cope with to the assembly, sooner than the votes, and, next Publicis received, he described complaint of Sadoun’s fresh position as “a total absurdity”.

“Contrary to what some proxy advisers think — you know these specialists who advise investors and who have never managed a company in their life —well, the management of a company is not only carried out according to standards and rules, but above all according to ‘the H factor’, the human touch so essential in everything,” he advised the AGM.

However Lévy stated Publicis additionally listened to blackmails about “the risks of a concentration of powers” at the fresh board and it has put safeguards in playground to safeguard an “exemplary balance of powers”.

He cited the appointments of André Kudelski, the CEO of Kudelski Staff, a Swiss generation corporate, as manage director, and Elisabeth Badinter, the daughter of Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, the founding father of Publicis, as vice-chair, and “reinforced” board sub-committees.

Transferring to a unitary board will fortify Publicis, in step with Lévy, who stated: “This is the right decision for our group, at the right time. I proposed this change in governance to ensure Publicis’ continued success, and to consolidate all of the elements that make it such an exceptional company, from its family-led roots, its values and its indomitable spirit.”

One supply prompt the protest vote used to be fairly minor as a result of some shareholders gave the impression to have unnoticed the proxy advisers and subsidized Sadoun.

Lévy chairs his ultimate AGM

Greater than 300 society attended the AGM, which used to be held in Publicis Cinemas, a posh which is positioned beneath the company headquarters at the Champs-Élysées.

There used to be a sustained spherical of applause for Lévy on the finish of his cope with as a result of he used to be chairing his ultimate AGM next 37 years — 30 years as CEO and after seven years as chair of the supervisory board.

Lévy, who joined Publicis in 1971 and is elderly 82, does now not have a seat at the fresh board.

He’s going to proceed to wait board conferences as chairman emeritus, a fresh, unpaid position, and to help Sadoun, of whom he’s “incredibly proud”.

Each Lévy and Sadoun stated they need to proceed to behave as a “duo” and “in tandem”, albeit in a fresh method.

Publicis has most effective had 3 CEOs in its 98-year historical past. Bleustein-Blanchet led the gang for 60 years, adopted by way of Lévy for 3 many years and now Sadoun.

Sadoun will keep “hopefully for another decade or two” as CEO,  Lévy wrote in a message to shareholders forward of the AGM.

In Sadoun’s presentation, one in all his slides confirmed how Publicis’ natural earnings enlargement of 6.3% in 2023 used to be smartly forward of competitors, with Omnicom rising 1.7% (in line with an estimate by way of Barclays), WPP 0.9% and Interpublic declining 0.1%.

Below Sadoun’s management, Publicis has grown to change into the sector’s maximum reliable company crew, with a reserve marketplace valuation of €27bn (£23bn), regardless of WPP having better annual revenues and group of workers numbers.

Publicis’ web revenues had been better than the ones of WPP for the primary hour in Q1 2024, with the French company crew producing €3.2bn as opposed to €3.1bn for its British rival, some other slide from Sadoun confirmed.