FTSE 100 companies last year made their fewest changes this millennium, with only seven companies experiencing a change in management.
The seven companies to change direction this year was considerably lower than 2019, with 13 changes made in a 12-month period and a further nine that were announced in 2019 to take effect in 2020.
Since 2000, there has been an average of 12 to 13 changes in FTSE 100 CEOs each year, with the previous low since the millennium being nine new bosses in each of 2010 and 2012.
Russ Mould, an investment director at AJ Bell compared the FTSE 100 to English football, saying in “2021 it looks like shareholders and boardrooms showed a lot more patience that football club executives and supporters”.
He said the quiet year in 2021 “makes sense” in light of the frenzied boardroom activity of 2020, when there were 22 changes of CEO and another three announced to come into effect last year and was the highest figure since 2000.
Of the changes that took place, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LSE:LLOY) had a change of executive twice, with Willie Chalmers acting in interim position between May 1 and August 16, before being replaced permanently by Charle Nunn.
A change that was clouded in some controversy was at Barclays, with Jes Staley stepping down to be replaced by CS Venkatakrishnan following a probe into the working relationship between Staley and Jeffrey Epstein.
Rio Tinto, Entain, AVEVA, Smiths Group (LSE:SMIN), and Glencore were the other companies to announce management changes in 2021.
Four FTSE 100 companies, Burberry, Anglo American, Johnson Matthey, and Taylor Wimpey announced board changes last year to take effect this year.
British American Tobacco, HSBC and BT all announced changes in 2019, with Patrick Thomas, an investment director at Canaccord Genuity (TSX:CF, LSE:CF) Wealth Management saying at the time that chief executives were under pressure thanks to the FTSE 100 ‘not really going anywhere.’
The lack of changes would therefore suggest that investors have restored faith in the top 100 companies by market cap listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Since falling below 5000 points at the start of the pandemic nearly two years ago, the FTSE 100 has steadily risen back towards pre-pandemic levels at roughly 7500 points.