How do UK companies' Mechanisms Affect and Help their Corporate Dissertation

How do UK companies' Mechanisms Affect and Help their Corporate Governance - Dissertation Example Throughout the entire period in fulfilling the objectives of this dissertation, I was greatly blessed with his extensive guidance and supervision over my work. I cannot complete this part without saying ‘thank you, sir’. Subsequent to that, my colleagues and friends who also played their part have extended their hand for my project; the successful culmination of this dissertation has also observed the role of my friends. For such contribution, I am also indebted to them. Abstract The purpose of this paper was to understand and highlight corporate governance mechanisms pursued by the different organizations. For this purpose, the annual reports were used to extract the relevant information. Subsequently, the empirical analysis was carried out the understand interplay between the financial performance and the corporate governance mechanisms. The results indicate that the strongly established corporate governance mechanisms considerably improve the financial performance. Th e results indicate that the companies having strong corporate governance mechanisms were experiencing strong financial performance. However, more focus should be given to cooperation and coordination between executive and non-executive directors. Table of Content Introduction 5 Literature Review 8 Methodology 11 UNILEVER PLC 13 TATE & LYLE PLC 18 TESCO PLC 21 THORNTONS PLC 24 SAINSBURY PLC 27 SABMILLER PLC 32 MORRISON PLC 35 MARKS & SPENCER PLC 38 DIAGEO PLC 41 DIARY CREST GROUP PLC 44 CRANSWICK PLC 47 BRITVIC PLC 51 BOOKER GROUP PLC 55 ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS PLC 61 A.G. BARR PLC 65 Conclusion and Recommendation 70 Bibliography 77 Appendices Introduction Board governance mechanism haves experienced the focus of a range of reports in the United Kingdom, especially the Cadbury Report (1992)1 and the Hampel Report (1998)2. However, from these reports along with the support of Green bury Report (1996)3 came the Combined Code of best practice.4 In the United Kingdom, companies are expe cted to understand and implement board structures in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Combined Code. As a prerequisite of listing on the London Stock Exchange, firms are required to include a corporate governance statement in their annual reports. The purpose of this inclusion is to mention the ways in which companies apply the principles and provisions of the Combined Code. Subsequently, this elaborates the concept of the ‘comply or explain’ rule for the companies registered in the United Kingdom. In this regard, it has been provided that the Combined Code mentions three significant corporate governance mechanisms: duality and setting up of board sub-committees and the number of Non-Executive Directors. A considerable amount of literature is available to highlight that boards should include and ensure a balance of Non-Executive and Executive Directors. In this regard, Raheja contended that Executive Directors provide benefit to companies because of the extent of their company-related information.5 In addition to that, various studies provide that Non-Executive Directors have a constructive and positive effect and studies find that boards dominated by the Non-Executive Directors have more tendencies to act in the best interests of the shareholders.6 The UK Combined Code of best practice have recommended that Non-Executive Directors should make up at least one-third of the Board and consequently there have been