Funds push for News Corp board changes

4 Oct 2012, 5:09 pm   -   Source: AAP

Industry fund First Super is backing calls for Rupert Murdoch to step down as chairman of News Corp in favour of an independent appointment.

Australian superannuation funds have joined a global push to end Rupert Murdoch's dual role as chairman and chief executive of News Corporation.

Industry fund First Super, which holds shares in the media giant, and the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) on Thursday backed calls by some of News Corp's overseas-based investors for it to appoint an independent chairman.

News Corp shareholders will vote on the push at the company's annual general meeting (AGM) in Los Angeles on October 16.

First Super chief executive Graeme Russell said News Corp needed a more independent board with an independent chairman.

"Open, transparent, representative governance is well overdue at News Corp," he said in a statement.

"The interests of minority shareholders have too often been compromised."

Leading the calls to have Mr Murdoch replaced as chairman are the US-based Christian Brothers Investment Services and Britain's Local Authority Pension Fund Forum.

They have drafted a resolution calling for an independent chairman for shareholders to vote on at the October 16 meeting.

The resolution has won the backing of British fund manager Hermes Equity Ownership Services and shareholder advisory firm Glass Lewis.

There was a similar push to oust the 81-year-old media mogul at News Corp's 2011 AGM but it failed to pass.

That was because although Mr Murdoch and his family hold just 12 per cent of News Corp shares, they control about 40 per cent of voting shares under the company's two-class share structure.

ACSI, which represents super funds that manage about $350 billion in assets, called for all Murdoch family members, affiliated and executive directors to be replaced by "credible skilled outside directors".

"ACSI recognises that some change has occurred at the board level in 2012," ACSI chief executive Ann Byrne said in a statement.

"However it remains paramount that News Corp has a truly independent board, both independent of management and the family."

First Super, which has $1.7 billion in funds under management and 72,000 members, also plans to vote against the re-election of four board directors, including Mr Murdoch's sons James and Lachlan Murdoch.

And it will give the thumbs down to News Corp's executive compensation report.

Mr Russell said News Corp executives were paid "outrageous amounts of money", given the aggregate pay of their top six executives was more than three times the amount received by the top nine executives at mining giant BHP Billiton.

"We don't believe that any senior executive is worth four or five hundred times the wages paid to the employees who do the work, produce the product and generate the revenue and profits," Mr Russell said.

News Corp has come under fire as a result of the phone hacking scandal that forced the closure of UK tabloid News of the World, and led to the resignation of James Murdoch as chairman of the global media giant's UK publishing arm News International.

It announced plans in late June to split the company in two, with its lucrative television and movie business separated from its loss-making publishing operations.

News Corp shares closed up 38 cents at $24.78, while its non-voting scrip ended 27 cents higher at $24.46.

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