There’s no denying it: we work in a results-driven world. Financial results, investment return, engagement outcomes, meeting results. In fact, this is a good thing. Positive results we’ve contributed to are one of the things that make our work feel valuable (and shock horror, actually gets it valued sometimes as well!). So how or why would we create […]
Read MoreEuropean Corporate Governance Research & Engagement Specialists ECGS Appoints Manifest as UK Governance Research & Analytics Partner ECGS, the specialist pan-European governance and engagement firm has appointed Manifest information services Ltd (Manifest) to provide ECGS with customised research and vote guidance on UK and Ireland listed companies. Starting in proxy season 2014, Manifest will provide […]
Read MoreAs we approach the season of goodwill to all (wo)mankind, our thoughts often turn to those less fortunate than ourselves, and how we might achieve a better world with what we have to share. It’s a tradition that stretches well back before the iconic 1843 Dickens novella “A Christmas Carol“. In many ways, socially responsible […]
Read MoreBreaking new ground as the first country to require its companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, the UK government is storming ahead with its business sustainability agenda and is now making it obligatory for all quoted companies to disclose information regarding their wider environmental practices. Designed to reform current disclosure conventions of the annual […]
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The trouble with proxy advisors…. Is that everyone loves to hate them but, investors at least, can’t actually do their jobs without them. If we didn’t exist we’d have to be invented. So, what’s to be done? Yes, true, that opening statement was an enormous over-simplification, but the time has come to properly upack all […]
Read MoreMany column inches were dedicated to the news that Angela Ahrendts, Chief Executive of Burberry, is quitting to join Apple next year. It’s got us reflecting on where is the real story here, especially from a governance perspective. The Burberry chief was prominent in the news earlier this year because our Total Remuneration Survey identified […]
Read MoreShareholders looking for a more joined up approach to corporate reporting have, hopefully, not much longer to wait after the introduction of the UK’s Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’ Report) Regulations 2013 Business Minister Jo Swinson outlined the Coalition’s rationale for the reforms when the regulations were laid before Parliament earlier this year: […]
Read MoreGuest post by Damien Knight of MM&K At last, ‘quoted companies’ (i.e. UK incorporated companies with a listing on a main exchange) are faced with the full reality of the UK Government’s new regime for directors’ remuneration reporting and binding votes on pay policy. One thing is certain – companies are going to have to […]
Read MoreIt hardly comes as a surprise that two in five UK plcs find that proxy analysts have a so-called “negative influence” on the relationship between companies and their investors (Financial Times: “Proxy agencies fail to tick boxes” July 1, 2013) However, Sir John Parker appears to misunderstand the role of governance analysts. As the Investment […]
Read MoreProbably the most un-noticed consequence of the battle around the ill-fated Royal Bank of Scotland acquisition of ABN-AMRO has been the subsequent limitation of shareholders’ rights in the Netherlands. At the start of July a number of significant amendments Dutch company law were introduced which will make it significantly harder for shareholders to table their […]
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