LONDON: London Stock Exchange chairman Donald Brydon on Tuesday won shareholder backing to keep his job after an activist investor demanded his removal following the contested departure of chief executive Xavier Rolet.
Shareholders of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) voted 79 percent in favour of Brydon staying on.
"The board and I welcome the stability that this gives the group," Brydon said in a statement.
"The recruitment process for a new CEO is under way and we will update our shareholders in due course."
The vote came after The Children's Investment Master Fund (TCI) demanded Brydon leave his post, accusing the chairman of having a role in Rolet's recent departure.
Rolet stepped down last month, bringing forward a planned departure after blaming "unwelcome publicity" amid talk that he had been forced to quit.
Around the same time last month, Brydon said he would not put himself forward in 2019 for re-election as chairman.
But TCI deemed this insufficient and demanded Brydon step down immediately, leading to Tuesday's extraordinary general meeting and shareholder vote.
Qatar, the largest investor in the LSEG along with US asset manager BlackRock, had thrown its support behind Brydon before the meeting.
A source close to the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign fund had told AFP it would support Brydon out of fear that losing both a chief executive and chairman so close together could destabilise the LSEG, which also owns the Milan stock exchange.
Qatar and BlackRock each hold about 10 percent of LSEG, while TCI has a five percent stake.
- Succession plan -
Immediately after Tuesday's meeting, Brydon asked to see TCI co-founder Christopher Hohn, leader of the movement against him, in a conciliatory letter seen by AFP.
Hohn responded with a letter sent to the LSEG board, also seen by AFP, which emphasised that a search to replace Brydon should begin "immediately".
He claims the LSEG is now legally required to seek feedback from shareholders, given that more than 20 percent of votes were cast against the board's recommendation.
The LSEG board had backed Brydon unanimously in a letter last month, in which it expressed a "strong preference" for his "invaluable skills and experience".
The LSEG has appointed its chief financial officer David Warren as interim chief executive following Rolet's departure.
Private shareholder Aubrey Franklin told AFP on Tuesday that he thought Rolet had done a "first class job", and that the board's handling of his departure had been "disgusting".
Franklin urged shareholders to vote against Brydon, telling the floor that the affair had brought "considerable opprobrium to the company".
Under Rolet's stewardship, the company's market value has rocketed in value, while he oversaw the purchase of US asset manager Russell and the British clearing house LCH.Clearnet.
But also on his watch, the LSEG failed to merge with the Toronto stock exchange and Germany's Deutsche Boerse.
The European Union in March blocked a proposed blockbuster tie-up of the London and Frankfurt stock markets owing to competition concerns and fallout from Brexit.
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