WPP Scangroup has scheduled its twentieth Annual General Meeting for 8 June 2026, confirming it will put the minority shareholders' board removal resolutions to a shareholder vote as special business, while simultaneously replacing three of the nine directors named in the ouster bid before the meeting takes place.
- •The AGM notice, signed by Company Secretary Winnie Jumba and dated 15 May 2026, sets the hybrid meeting for 10:00 a.m. on Monday 8 June.
- •The board has folded the requisition filed by Bharat Thakrar's minority bloc directly into the AGM agenda as item 8, rather than convening a separate extraordinary general meeting.
- •On 13 May 2026, two days before the AGM notice, the board confirmed the retirement of Jon Eggar, Patou Nuytemans, and Shahid Sadiq, all three named in Thakrar's removal resolutions, effective the same date.
The departures validated a claim Thakrar made to The Kenyan Wall Street on 11 May, that three WPP-appointed directors were no longer employed by WPP Plc and would be on their way out. The company confirmed it two days later.
In their place, the board appointed three WPP network insiders: Kagiso Musi, a pan-African marketing executive with 25 years of experience; Manuel Segimon, CFO at WPP Creative EMEA and VML EMEA; and Nick Douglas, Group Finance Director at WPP Plc itself. Douglas's appointment to the board of a listed subsidiary in which WPP Plc holds a controlling 50.1% stake is a governance point the minority shareholders are likely to raise, given their existing allegation that the board has functioned as a rubber stamp for the majority shareholder.
The outcome of the removal resolutions is not in doubt with WPP Plc controlling approximately 50.1% of issued share capital and can defeat all resolutions on a straight vote as the minority bloc holds only 13.59%. Thakrar has acknowledged the vote will be lost, framing the exercise as a governance campaign rather than an actual takeover attempt.
The AGM will nonetheless put on record a shareholder vote on five years of deterioration: KSh 3.1 billion in aggregate losses, revenue falling from KSh 7 billion to 2.04 billion, a 62% share price decline, and a contested KSh 1.2 billion related-party loan to WPP Group Services SNC at 5% per annum.
Shareholder registration closes 6 June 2026 at noon. Poll results will be published within 48 hours of the meeting's conclusion.
Ex-CEO Bharat Thakrar Leads Minority Push to Oust Entire WPP Scangroup Board
