Unilever boss attacks City culture

DEPARTING Unilever chairman Niall FitzGerald has attacked City short-termism and called for tax changes to encourage institutions to hold on to shares for much longer.

He said: 'The short-term nature of the way in which investor decisions are made has always been an issue, but I think it is now much more serious and potentially destructive.'

FitzGerald's remarks are significant, not least because this summer he takes over as £500,000-a-year chairman of Reuters, the financial information group, whose screens help traders make split-second decisions.

His pay last year was cut by 40% to £1.4m after the popularity of the Atkins diet, especially among stars such as Jennifer Aniston, hit sales of the group's Slimfast range.

But his main target is institutional shareholders, which manage billions of pounds on behalf of pension fund members and insurance policyholders.

'More and more, there is the danger that decisions will be taken with a twoyear time horizon at most, probably with a three-month time horizon,' he said. 'Decisions need to be made about investment in ideas, in science, in people, in opening up new markets.'

FitzGerald will leave Unilever after 37 years with a £13.9m pension pot, entitling him to an annual retirement income of £780,000.