Author Archives: Sarah Wilson

The debate around comply or explain as a concept took an interesting turn last week when three of the UK’s largest pension fund investors publicly broke ranks on the issue of annual director elections. In a letter published in the …

Read More

The South African Times has reported that a ‘group of stakeholders within the investor community have with the assistance of The Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoDSA) convened a committee for the drafting of a code for responsible shareholder …

Read More

 The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill  was voted through by both the House of Representatives and Senate by 237-192 and 60-39 respectively. The legislation is now expected to be signed into law by President Obama as early as this week. 

The …

Read More

The threat of quotas to improve board diversity moved a step closer last week with EU Fundamental Rights Commissioner Viviane Reding telling the European parliament: “Equality in decision-making is not yet a fact … I do not rule out the …

Read More

Fair corporate suffrage is an important right that should attach to every equity security
Source: United States Congress, 1934

There’s no small irony that the first shareholder voting regulations were introduced in the aftermath of ‘The Great Crash’. Now, another

Read More

Investment bank Mediobanca is said to have reached a unanimous agreement on the Assicurazioni Generali board list which will include a new chairman for Europe’s third biggest insurer.

Generali is, as the FT puts it “arguably Italy’s most important financial …

Read More

The US Securities and Exchange Commission looks set to debate its “concept release” on the mechanics of the US proxy system next week.  According to an SEC announcement, the commission is scheduled to meet on July 14 at 10am …

Read More

Some 55.44% of the votes cast on the resolution to approve the remuneration report at the AGM of Punch Taverns voted against the remuneration report, condemning the report to defeat. The company joins a select list of five companies in …

Read More

A consultation paper has been published by the Irish Stock Exchange in which it proposes the introduction of an Irish Corporate Governance Code, a draft copy of which has been published. The proposed Code supplements the existing Combined Code …

Read More

goes to Australian-listed Qbe Insurance Group Ltd at 32 days. But before company secretary Duncan Ramsay throws himself onto his letter opener, it’s not his fault. Yes we are back to the wretched “chain of intermediaries” again. As one of …

Read More