Ritazza chair faces revolt as 'overboarding' anger grows

The chairman of the company behind the Upper Crust food concession operator is facing an investor revolt amid City concern about directors holding excessive numbers of boardroom roles.

Sky News has learnt that several leading institutions plan to vote against Vagn Sorensen, who has chaired SSP Group (Frankfurt: 83S.F - news) for nearly 12 years, at next week's annual meeting.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS (LSE: 0QRS.L - news) ), an influential voting adviser, has recommended opposing Mr Sorensen's re-election at SSP's AGM, according to a report circulated to clients.

The catering group, which also owns the Ritazza chain of coffee concessions, has a market value of about £3bn, having witnessed strong growth under Kate Swann, the highly regarded former chief executive of WHSmith.

Investors have sounded the alarm bell over Mr Sorensen's extensive portfolio of jobs, which include the chairmanships of Air Canada (Other OTC: AIDIF - news) and FLSmidth, a Danish engineering company.

He also sits on the board of Royal Caribbean Cruises (LSE: 0I1W.L - news) , another listed company, while his biography on the SSP website lists him as a senior industrial adviser to EQT Partners, the private equity firm, and a non-executive director of Lufthansa Cargo.

Last week, Scandic, the Nordic hotel operator, announced that Mr Sorensen would step down as its chairman at April's AGM, citing "time constraints from several other international board appointments".

It was unclear on Wednesday whether that decision would be sufficient to assuage the concerns of ISS or individual shareholders ahead of next week's vote.

If at least 20% of shareholders vote against Mr Sorensen's re-election, it would result in SSP appearing on a new public register of companies which have been the subject of investor revolts.

The issue of "overboarding" has become increasingly prominent in recent years as a growing number of directors accumulate large portfolios of jobs across publicly traded and private equity-backed businesses.

Paul Walsh, who chairs the catering group Compass, decided not to seek re-election to the board of HSBC Holdings (Frankfurt: 923893 - news) last year after investors expressed similar 'overboarding' concerns.

ISS has been consulting on new guidelines relating to directors' array of business commitments, suggesting that chairs should not hold more than two such roles at public companies - although they would be permitted to hold up to three other non-executive directorships.

SSP declined to comment.