City AM reporting on the latest FT-ICSA Bellwether survey 23 May 2016
- Declining business confidence linked to slowing economic growth is reflected in the 45% of respondents declaring no change in plans for capital expenditure in the next twelve months
- however, the survey shows that the looming EU referendum has not been a factor in the general gloom among the FTSE firms - fewer than half the companies involved in the research rate a UK exit from the EU as potentially damaging, while only 49% say they have considered the implications of a vote to leave.
Says Peter Swabey, policy and research director at governance institute ICSA.
"It will be interesting to see whether this situation changes once uncertainty about Brexit has been removed."
- According to the data, 37% of companies regard EU membership as having a positive effect on their business, down from 61% in December 2015.
- Respondents from the FTSE 100 seem to view EU membership more favourably than the 250 - more than twice as many (55%) of FTSE 100 companies feel that EU membership has a positive impact compared with 24 per cent of the FTSE 250.
The FT-ICSA Boardroom Bellwether is a twice-yearly survey which seeks to gauge the sentiment inside UK boardrooms. The findings show how boards are positioning themselves to address the challenges of the economy, and the wider business and social climate in which they operate. The survey canvasses the views of the company secretaries of the FTSE 350, and the data is analysed in an aggregated and anonymised form.
Questions cover a range of general business and topical issues, as well as more specific governance matters. While some questions change from survey to survey, the core remains the same to reveal trends and shifts in opinion.
How refreshing to see companies looking beyond the hype and scare mongering, and still being scared by the reality anyhow. Even more scary/telling though is that 51% of the respondents have not considered the implications of Brexit.
City AM article here
