The Shareholder Executive (ShEx) was a body within the

UK Government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

between 2003 and 2016, responsible for managing the government's financial interest in a range of state-owned businesses for commercial rather than political interests. It was part of the

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was created by the Gordon Brown premiership on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Uni ...

and staffed by civil servants, many of whom were corporate finance professionals with private sector experience. It was led by Mark Russell as chief executive at the time of its merger into

UK Government Investments UK Government Investments (UKGI) is a company owned by the Government of the United Kingdom which combines the former functions of the Shareholder Executive and UK Financial Investments. UKGI manages a portfolio of 16 businesses, including ...

Role

The Shareholder Executive managed a portfolio of businesses with a combined turnover of around £12 billion. The businesses varied and could be in the form of a

limited company In a limited company, the Legal liability, liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a c ...

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...

limited liability partnership A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. It therefore can exhibit aspects of both partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, each partner is n ...

statutory corporation A statutory corporation is a corporation, government entity created as a statutory body by statute. Their precise nature varies by jurisdiction, but they are corporations owned by a government or controlled by national or sub-national government ...

, trading fund,

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or No ...

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process o ...

non-ministerial government department Non-ministerial government departments (NMGDs) are a type of Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom government that deal with matters for which direct political over ...

. It advised the government on drafting parts of the

Postal Services Act 2011 The Postal Services Act 2011 (c. 5) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act enabled the British Government to sell shares in Royal Mail to private investors and includes the possible mutualisation of the Post Office. The act ...

and worked on the

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

and the possible mutualisation of

Post Office Ltd Post Office Limited, formerly Post Office Counters Limited and commonly known as the Post Office, is a state-owned retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of postal and non-postal related products including po ...

. It was also involved in establishing the UK Green Investment Bank, the Public Data Group and the

British Business Bank British Business Bank plc (BBB) is a British state-owned economic development bank established by the UK Government. Its aim is to increase the supply of credit to small and medium-sized enterprises as well as providing business advice services. ...

. It was not responsible for the government's shares in UK banks, which were managed by

UK Financial Investments UK Financial Investments (UKFI) was a limited company set up in November 2008 and mandated by the UK government to manage HM Treasury's shareholdings in Lloyds Banking Group, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and UK Asset Resolution. UKFI ceased ...

(UKFI), or the government's property holdings, which were managed by the

Government Property Unit A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a m ...

(GPU).

History

The Shareholder Executive was originally established in September 2003 as part of the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...

. In 2004 it moved to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The National Audit Office published a report into the Shareholder Executive in 2007. This was broadly positive but had some misgivings about its location in the DTI. Following the split of the DTI in 2007, ShEX moved to the

Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) was a Departments of the United Kingdom Government, United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade ...

(BERR) and then to its successor, the

(BIS) in 2009. Early interventions by the Shareholder Executive included efforts in 2004–2005 to save distressed carmaker MG Rover, followed by successful interventions to protect the UK operations of

Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is the holding company of Jaguar Land Rover, also known as JLR, and is a British multinational automobile manufacturer which produces luxury vehicles and SUVs and has its head office in Whitley, Coventry, Unite ...

and

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

. The Shareholder Executive was involved in the government's

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

Northern Rock Northern Rock, formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, was a British bank. Based at Regent Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Northern Rock was originally a building society. It demutualised and became Northern Rock bank in ...

and

Bradford & Bingley Bradford & Bingley plc was a British bank with headquarters in the West Yorkshire town of Bingley. The bank was formed in December 2000 by demutualisation of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society following a vote of the building society's me ...

at the start of the banking crisis in 2008. It then began the process of splitting off Northern Rock's '

bad bank A bad bank is a corporate structure which isolates illiquid and high risk assets (typically non-performing loans) held by a bank or a financial organisation, or perhaps a group of banks or financial organisations. A bank may accumulate a large p ...

' mortgage business to form

. All bank shareholdings were transferred to

in November 2008. In 2011, the Government Property Unit was moved from the Shareholder Executive to the

as part of the new Efficiency and Reform Group. In 2015, the government announced that the Shareholder Executive would be transferred to

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...

and become a subsidiary of

, along with

. This was due to occur with the end of the government fiscal year on 1 April 2016.

Key personnel

The body's first chief executive was Richard Gillingwater, who moved to the chair role in September 2006 and was replaced by Mark Bryant.

Stephen Lovegrove Sir Stephen Augustus Lovegrove (born November 1966) is a British civil servant who was the UK National Security Adviser from March 2021 to September 2022. He led the Shareholder Executive from 2007 to 2013, and then had permanent secretary r ...

was chief executive from June 2007 to 2013, when he became the

permanent secretary A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...

at the Department of Energy & Climate Change. Lovegrove was replaced by Mark Russell, who had been deputy chief executive since 2008, and continued as chief executive of UKGI after the 2016 merger. Non-executive chairmen include: * 2007–2012: Philip Remnant, previously an executive at the investment banking arm of

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...

, and director general of the

Takeover Panel The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers, or more commonly The Takeover Panel, is the United Kingdom's regulatory body charged with the administration of The Takeover Code. It was set up in 1968 and is located in London, England. Its role is to ens ...

* 2012–2014: Patrick O'Sullivan, simultaneously deputy governor of the

Bank of Ireland Bank of Ireland Group plc () is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history. At ...

and chair of Old Mutual; previously chief financial officer at Zurich Financial Services Group

Portfolio Unit

The Portfolio Unit contained businesses where the Shareholder Executive had a shareholding mandate, although the shares themselves were owned by government departments. Its role was either accountable to ministers directly ('executive'), working alongside shareholding teams within departments ('joint team'), or advising department shareholder teams ('advisory'). Most businesses were wholly owned by the government, but some were partly owned.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the Company register, register of companies, employs the company registrars and is responsible for Incorporation (business), incorporating all forms of Company, co ...

Insolvency Service The Insolvency Service is an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade with headquarters in London. It has around 1,700 staff, operating from 22 locations across the UK. The Insolvency Service administers compulsory company liq ...

Land Registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

Met Office The Met Office, until November 2000 officially the Meteorological Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather and climate service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and ...

Ordnance Survey The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

UK Export Finance The Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), branded as UK Export Finance (UKEF), is the export credit agency and a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. In 1920, UKEF had a maximum total exposure of just £26 mi ...

* UK Green Investment Bank *

Urenco The Urenco Group is a British-German-Dutch nuclear fuel consortium operating several uranium enrichment plants in Germany, the Netherlands, United States, and United Kingdom. It supplies nuclear power stations in about 15 countries, and stat ...

(33.3%)

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Channel Four Television Corporation Channel Four Television Corporation is a British state-owned_enterprise, state-owned media company which runs 12 television channels, a streaming service, and film and TV production. Unlike the BBC, it receives no Subsidy, public funding and is ...

Department for International Development

CDC Group British International Investment plc, (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation) is the development finance institution of the UK government. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Off ...

Department for Transport

London and Continental Railways London and Continental Railways (LCR) is a property development company owned by the Government of the United Kingdom for developing former railway land. The company was originally established in 1994 as a private consortium to own European P ...

NATS Holdings NATS Holdings, formally National Air Traffic Services and commonly referred to as NATS, provides en-route air traffic control services to flights within the UK flight information regions and the Shanwick Oceanic Control, Shanwick Oceanic Cont ...

(49%)

Department for Work and Pensions

* Working Links (33.3%)

Department of Energy and Climate Change

National Nuclear Laboratory The United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL, formerly National Nuclear Laboratory and earlier Nexia Solutions) is a UK government owned and operated nuclear services technology provider covering the whole of the nuclear fuel cycle. It ...

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (formerly the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) formed by the Energy Act 2004. It evolved from ...

Nuclear Liabilities Fund The Nuclear Liabilities Fund (formerly the Nuclear Generation Decommissioning Fund) is a fund of the UK Government to provide arrangements for funding certain long-term costs for the decommissioning of eight nuclear power stations formerly owned b ...

HM Treasury

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's official maker of British coins. It is currently located in Llantrisant, Wales, where it moved in 1968. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly ow ...

Ministry of Defence

UK Hydrographic Office The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) is the UK's agency for providing hydrographic and marine geospatial data to mariners and maritime organisations across the world. The UKHO is a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is ...

Corporate Finance Practice

The Corporate Finance Practice contained businesses where the Shareholder Executive had no clear shareholding mandate. Its role was to provide advice to the relevant government department.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Student Loans Company Student Loans Company Limited (SLC) is an executive non-departmental public body company in the United Kingdom that provides student loans. It is owned by the UK Government's Department for Education (85%), the Scottish Government (5%), the We ...

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

*Public Sector

spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

Department of Health

* Bio Products Laboratory (20%) * Community Health Partnerships * NHS Professionals * NHS Shared Business Services (50%)

Ministry of Defence

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is an executive agency of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is "to maximise the impact of science and technology for the defence and security of the UK". The a ...

* Defence Storage and Distribution Agency *

Defence Support Group The Defence Support Group (DSG) was an executive agency and wholly owned trading fund of the Ministry of Defence in the United Kingdom. It was established on 1 April 2008 by the merger of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency and the Army Base Re ...

* Oil and Pipelines Agency

Former businesses

The Shareholder Executive had earlier been responsible for a number of other businesses that were sold, moved to other areas of government or dissolved. * Actis – remaining stake sold in 2012 * Army Base Repair Organisation – merged into Defence Support Group in 2008 *

– moved to UKFI in 2008 *

British Energy British Energy was the UK's largest electricity generation company by volume, before being taken over by Électricité de France (EDF) in 2009. British Energy operated eight former UK state-owned nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power ...

– remaining stake sold during

takeover In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast to the acquisi ...

EDF Energy EDF Energy is a British integrated energy company, wholly owned by the French state-owned EDF (Électricité de France), with operations spanning electricity generation and the sale of natural gas and electricity to homes and businesses throug ...

in 2009 * British Nuclear Fuels – broken up and ceased activities in 2009 *

British Waterways British Waterways, often shortened to BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government of the United Kingdom. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks in England, Scotlan ...

– removed from portfolio to become charitable trust in 2012 *

Defence Aviation Repair Agency The Defence Aviation Repair Agency, better known as DARA, was an executive agency of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence, responsible for the maintenance and repair of Royal Air Force, Army and the Royal ...

– merged into Defence Support Group in 2008 *

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

– remaining stake sold in 2015 *

Fire Service College The Fire Service College is responsible for providing leadership, management and advanced operational training courses for senior firefighter, fire officers from the United Kingdom and foreign fire authorities. It is located at Moreton-in-Marsh i ...

– removed from portfolio in 2007 * Forensic Science Service – dissolved in 2012 *

Covent Garden Market Authority New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms, London, is the largest wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market in the United Kingdom. It covers a site of and is home to about 200 fruit, vegetable and flower companies. The market serves 40% of the f ...

– moved to Government Property Unit in 2011 *

Northern Ireland Water Northern Ireland Water Limited is the main water company in Northern Ireland. Formerly an executive agency within Northern Ireland Executive, it became a government-owned company on 1 April 2007. The company now sits as an Agency within the ...

removed from portfolio in 2010 *

– moved to UKFI in 2008 * Northern Rock (Asset Management) moved to UKFI in 2008 *

Qinetiq QinetiQ ( as in '' kinetic'') is a British defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabili ...

– remaining stake sold in 2008 * Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre – moved to Government Property Unit in 2011 * Partnerships UK – dissolved in 2011 *

– remaining stake sold in 2015 *

Scottish Water Scottish Water is a statutory corporation that provides water and sewerage services across Scotland. It is accountable to the public through the Scottish Government. Operations Scottish Water provides drinking water to 2.46 million households a ...

– removed from portfolio in 2011 * The Tote – sold to

Betfred Betfred Group Holdings Limited is a bookmaker based in the United Kingdom, founded by Fred Done.Pronounced to rhyme with "bone". It was first established as a single betting shop in Ordsall, Salford, in 1967. Its turnover in 2004 was reported ...

in 2011 *

UK Atomic Energy Authority The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority is a UK government research organisation responsible for the development of fusion energy. It is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). T ...

– commercial business unit sold to Babcock International Group in 2009

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/the-shareholder-executive
Shareholder Executive annual review 2013 to 2014

Shareholder Executive annual review 2014 to 2015
Corporate governance in the United Kingdom HM Treasury Public bodies and task forces of the United Kingdom government 2003 establishments in the United Kingdom Shareholders

Role

History

Key personnel

Portfolio Unit

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Department for International Development

Department for Transport

Department for Work and Pensions

Department of Energy and Climate Change

HM Treasury

Ministry of Defence

Corporate Finance Practice

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Department of Health

Ministry of Defence

Former businesses

See also

References

External links