Experian 2010 Annual Report Download - page 58

Experian Annual Report 2010 Governance56
Directors’ report (continued)
No member shall, unless the –
directors otherwise determine, be
entitled to vote either personally
or by proxy at a shareholders’
meeting or to exercise any other
right conferred by membership in
relation to shareholders’ meetings
if he/she fails within the prescribed
period to provide the Company with
information concerning interests in
those shares required to be provided
after being duly served with a
notice pursuant to the articles of
association of the Company.
In accordance with the articles –
of association of the Company
and save for certain limited
circumstances, if the number of
shares in the Company benecially
owned by residents of the USA
exceeds a dened permitted
maximum and the directors give
notice to the holder(s) of such
shares, such shares shall not confer
on the holder(s) thereof the right to
receive notice of, attend or vote at
general meetings of the Company.
Financial risk management,
objectives and policies
Descriptions of the use of nancial
instruments and Experian’s treasury
and risk management objectives and
policies are set out in the nancial review
within the business review section of the
annual report and also in note 5 to the
Group nancial statements.
Own shares
The existing authority for the Company
to purchase its own shares, which
expires at the end of this year’s annual
general meeting, was given at the annual
general meeting held on 15 July 2009 and
permitted the Company to purchase,
in the market, 102,547,586 of its own
shares. The Company did not utilise the
authority to make any purchases of its
own shares during the year under review,
or up to the date of approval of this
annual report.
Details of the new authority being
requested are contained in the circular
to shareholders, which accompanies
this annual report or is available on the
Company’s website at www.experianplc.
com.
The Companies (Jersey) Law 1991
permits the Company to hold any shares
bought back as treasury shares as an
alternative to immediately cancelling
them and the directors intend to decide
whether to cancel shares pursuant to
this authority or hold them as treasury
shares based on the interests of the
Company and shareholders as a whole
at the relevant time.
Details of the shares in the Company
purchased by and held under The
Experian plc Employee Share Trust and
the Experian UK Approved All Employee
Share Plan are set out in note L to the
Company’s nancial statements.
Charitable donations
During the year the Group donated
US$1.93m to charitable causes.
Funds from the GUS Charitable Trust
disbursed through Experian during the
year totalled US$0.6m.
In addition to cash contributions, the
Group’s employees are encouraged to
give their time and skills for the benet of
a variety of charitable causes.
Political donations
Experian did not make any EU political
donations during the year ended 31
March 2010.
Employment of people
with disabilities
People with disabilities have equal
opportunities when applying for
vacancies. In addition to complying with
legislative requirements, procedures
are in place to ensure that disabled
employees are fairly treated and that
their training and career development
needs are carefully managed. For those
employees becoming disabled during
the course of their employment, the
Group is supportive, whether through
re-training or re-deployment, so as
to provide an opportunity for them
to remain with the Group whenever
possible.
Employee involvement
Experian is committed to employee
involvement throughout the business
and is intent on motivating and keeping
staff informed on matters that concern
them in the context of their employment
and involving them through local
consultative procedures. Where there
are recognition agreements with trade
unions, the consultation process is
established through national and
local trade union representatives and
through joint consultation committees.
Employees are kept well informed on
matters of concern and the nancial and
economic factors affecting the Group’s
performance through management
channels, conferences, meetings,
publications and intranet sites. More
detail on employee engagement,
together with information on diversity,
succession planning and talent
development can be found in the key
resources section of the annual report.
Experian continues to support employee
share ownership through the provision
of save as you earn and other all-
employee share plan arrangements
which are intended to align the
interests of employees with those of
shareholders.
Creditor payment
For all trade creditors, it is Group policy
to:
Agree and conrm the terms of –
payment at the commencement of
business with that supplier;
Pay in accordance with any contract –
agreed with the supplier or as
required by law; and
Continually review payment –
procedures and liaise with
suppliers as a means of eliminating
difculties and maintaining good
working relationships.
Trade creditors of the Group at 31 March
2010 were 21 days based on the ratio of
Group trade creditors at the end of the
year to the amounts invoiced during the
year by trade creditors. The Company
has no trade creditors.
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