Another Investor Refuses to Support James Murdoch's Re-Election at BSkyB

LONDON - Legal & General, one of the City of London’s biggest financial players has refused to support James Murdoch’s re-election as non-executive chairman of BSkyB.

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Rupert Murdoch’s youngest son – who has been embroiled in the phone-hacking scandal since July – has already received the unanimous backing of the BSkyB board and is expected to win the re-election vote Tuesday at the pay TV giant’s AGM – not least because he has News Corp’s 37 percent vote behind him.

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But Legal & General has added its weight to a growing group of shareholders who no longer believe James Murdoch is the right person to chair BSkyB.

The company owns 2.9 percent of BSkyB’s shares and is expected to be joined in its rebellion by other shareholders including Aviva, British Airways Pension Investment and the Co-operative Asset management.

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A city investor told THR that James Murdoch was only “really in trouble” if half the independent vote went against him.

“At the moment that’s is nowhere near the case, but hypothetically, if it did happen that he had more than about 25 percent of the total vote against him, he would probably have to resign.”