A war of words has broken out between investors and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the regulator’s controversial proposal to amend its proxy voting rules.  On 5 November, the SEC proposed new changes to how proxy advisory firms operate – with some criticising the move as a way to limit investors’ ability to hold public companies accountable.  Under the proposed changes, proxy advisory firms would […]

Mining titan BHP is facing growing shareholder dissent over its close links with industry groups that support the fossil fuel industry – with over a quarter of its investors voting to end these affiliations.  At the Anglo-Australian mining group’s AGM held last week, 27.07% of shareholders voted for a resolution to suspend BHP’s membership of industry associations that are involved in lobbying found […]

Since the global economic meltdown in 2007, the debate over shareholder primacy and who ‘owns’ a company has raged on.   But at no time has the debate been as contentious as today with more stakeholders and industry commentators challenging the view that a corporation should exist principally to maximise shareholder wealth – a notion that was re-popularised by economist Milton Friedman in the 1970s.  Just as climate change is no longer a topic taken seriously solely by environmentalists, ‘stakeholder primacy’ – if we […]