Charles Dunstone is facing a potential investor backlash after announcing plans to install himself as chairman of the two businesses that will be created from a planned carve-up of his telecommunications empire. Carphone Warehouse said on Wednesday that it would forge ahead with plans to spin off its TalkTalk telecoms and broadband business from its retail division, which it runs in conjunction with Best Buy, the American group, creating two separately listed companies. The move, aimed at creating better value for shareholders, would involve Mr Dunstone becoming chairman of both companies and continuing his hands-on day-to-day running of both, despite the installation of chief executives at each, the group said. Analysts questioned whether the shake-up could leave Mr Dunstone spread too thinly. It also raised questions about the entrepreneur's priorities, they said. Steve Malcolm, an analyst at Arete Research, said: “Clearly, these are both full-time jobs. Can Charles Dunstone do two full-time jobs and is it fair to both companies?” City sources believed that the entrepreneur's grand plan was to sell the retail division of the business to Best Buy and then focus on the TalkTalk business. Mr Dunstone sold 50 per cent of the retail business to Best Buy for £1.1 billion last year. The Combined Code on Corporate Governance used to dictate that best practice meant that one person would not be chairman at more than one FTSE 100 company. However, that has been relaxed. There were no prescriptions around FTSE 250 companies. Carphone Warehouse is a FTSE 250 company. Corporate governance experts said that shareholders would need to be satisfied that having more than one role would not influence Mr Dunstone's ability to do the job properly. At present, Mr Dunstone is group chief executive. Roger Taylor, the group's finance head, also runs the retail venture, while John Gildersleeve is group chairman. The plan - on which Carphone is preparing to consult shareholders to establish any objections — was unveiled alongside a strong fourth-quarter trading update, which beat customer growth expectations and raised cashflow guidance for 2017-10. The group, which has been eyeing the assets of Tiscali, its beleaguered broadband rival, added a net 74,000 broadband customers, far surpassing analysts' expectations of 44,000. It has 2.8 million broadband customers. Mobile phone connections rose 12 per cent to three million in the period, with (more profitable) subscription connections up 2 per cent to 1.1 million. The group also sought to ease concerns about problems with its roll-out of Best Buy superstores after delays on the project, which was supposed to be launched this summer. The company said that it was close to signing leases on five British sites and should open shops in spring next year. Carphone is aiming to launch 100 Best Buy stores in Europe by 2017, with about 70 per cent of them in the UK. The roll-out would create 10,000 British jobs by 2017, it said. The move to split up the telecoms empire is the latest in a series of shake-ups by Mr Dunstone since he co-founded the phone company in a warehouse 20 years ago. He has recast it from a pure mobile phone retailer to a modern communications group, purchasing rivals and becoming a big player to rival the likes of BT. The group could not predict when the planned split would take place but it hoped to outline a timetable at its annual shareholder m，英语论文网站，英语毕业论文 |
