Guernsey Finance chief executive Peter Niven told International Adviser on Friday that he did not see a conflict of interest in his role as a non-executive director of Guernsey-domiciled Resolution – the company founded by Clive Cowdery that has had its bid for Friends Provident accepted – or with any of his other seven directorships.
He said he is already stepping down as chairman of another Guernsey company that is affected by the Friends Provident bid: New FCPT Ltd, the holding company of the FTSE 250-listed F&C Commercial Property Trust, whose majority shareholder is Friends Provident.
In August, the board of FCPT announced that in the event the Resolution acquisition became effective, Niven would give up the role of chairman, which he has held since 2005, and become a non-independent director.
During the period leading up to the acquisition, were it to happen, Niven “will recuse himself from any decisions of the board which affect the interests of the company’s majority shareholder any differently from the interests of its shareholders as a whole”, the FCPT board said in a statement on 12 August.
Niven said he would not have become a director of Resolution in 2008 if he had thought there was a potential conflict, “and the board [of Guernsey Finance] didn’t either”.
Under his contract, Niven is permitted to serve as a non-executive director as long as the company does not have a physical presence on the island, which he noted is the case with Resolution, even though it is technically domiciled there. Its Guernsey dealings are handled by outside administrators on the island.
Niven’s comments came as awareness of his role with Resolution became more widespread after it was reported in the Guernsey press.
The Guernsey Press and Star said Thursday that “concerns” had been raised by a local government official, Janine Le Sauvage, who, it said, is a “frequent critic of the funding” of Guernsey Finance.
Le Sauvage said she had raised her concerns over Niven’s Resolution directorship with Guernsey officials, but that they had told her they did not see a problem, the paper said.
Guernsey Finance board approval
Niven, who described the matter as "a minor blip, just a local issue,” said he had to get the permission of Guernsey Finance’s board “every time I want to take on a directorship” –and the Resolution directorship had been no different.
“In this particular case, as with all my others, they felt there were no conflicts. And they still [feel that way].”
An external Resolution spokesman said Friday that the company did not have concerns about a potential conflict of interest on Niven’s part, and that there was no talk of a change in his role with the company.
As in other small financial jurisdictions where large number of companies are domiciled, it is not considered unusual on Guernsey for individuals with a financial background to serve as non-executive directors on the boards of several companies, one source familiar with the situation noted.
