Swiss foods company Nestlé yesterday defeated a group of rebel shareholders pressing to split the roles of chairman and chief executive and make other corporate governance changes.

Ethos, a Swiss corporate governance lobby group, supported by five pension funds holding more than Sfr300m (€193m) of Nestlé stock, entered a motion at the firm's annual general meeting to prevent chief executive Peter Brabeck-Letmathe from also taking up the position of chairman.