British Land investors urged to throw out Ritblat from top jobs

British Land, the property giant, came under further attack over corporate governance yesterday, after a key shareholder advisory group said investors should vote off the company's chairman and chief executive, John Ritblat.

Pensions Investment Research Consultants (Pirc), used for advice on corporate governance by fund managers, said shareholders should oppose the re-election of Mr Ritblat at the annual general meeting on 16 July.

The AGM promises to be a stormy event, which will see three rebel shareholder resolutions put to the vote. The British Land board has vigorously opposed each of these proposals, which come from a shareholder, Laxey Partners.

The first two resolutions call for the company to buy back shares, which trade at a large discount, while the third says that the management of the company's real estate portfolio should be handed over to "professional managers" – effectively a vote of no confidence in the board.

Pirc also said investors should oppose the election of two other directors, the re-appointment of the company's auditors and British Land's remuneration report. Pirc's study on British Land found that just one of the company's four non-executive directors, Lord Burns, could be considered "independent".

This includes the senior non-executive director, Derek Higgs, who is leading a government taskforce into the role of non-executives. Pirc pointed out that Mr Higgs is a senior adviser to UBS Warburg, which is British Land's broker and financial adviser and also a tenant of the company at its Broadgate office complex.

However, Pirc stopped short of backing Laxey's proposals. It said that the buyback proposal "addresses potentially an outcome rather than a cause of poor corporate governance". Pirc said there was insufficient evidence to support Laxey's assertion that British Land's portfolio would be better off under management by outsiders.

Earlier this week, the National Association of Pension Funds also advised its members to vote against all three proposals put forth by Laxey, saying they would undermine the authority of the company's board. The NAPF backed the re-election of Mr Ritblat but it also found that Mr Higgs was insufficiently independent as a non-executive director.