It’s a sporting life for Stuart Rose, so let the dog see the rabbit

Something was missing from Marks & Spencer’s shareholders’ meeting. It was the man from the Pru, standing up to propose a vote of thanks. This used to be one of the City’s most regular fixtures. Neither M&S nor the Prudential are quite the forces they were, but in those days the Pru was M&S’s biggest shareholder, and had been for years, and was happy. Now its place has been taken by Brandes, an American fund which looks for ‘active value’. Investors like the Pru and the pension funds no longer dominate the market in the way that they did. They have bought bonds and sold shares, at the instance of their regulators and in the supposed interest of safety. Their successors will be even more susceptible to a quick turn and a quick fix, and less inclined to let the dog see the rabbit, however much Stuart Rose, top dog at M&S, might wish it.