The Observer, Sunday 26 April 2009 Retirement top-up deals promise £1m a year to Britain’s leading executives despite the downturn as the gap between bosses and workers widens. The research into the pensions of chief executives of stockmarket-listed companies was commissioned by the Observer and comes from benefits consultancy MM&K and investor agency Manifest. Source: […]

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FairPensions, the UK-based campaign for responsible investment has published its 3rd annual survey of pension funds and their ESG arrangements. The headline findings are that although major UK pension funds are now acknowledging the potential of ‘non-financial’ issues to affect the value of investments, many still lack key strategies to manage these risks. The report also raises […]

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Hong Kong is not generally noted for its progressive corporate governance regime. Critics have argued that its weak regulatory system has long favoured powerful tycoons. However, in a rare and dramatic turn of events, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has won its fight at the Court of Appeal to block PCCW chairman Richard […]

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As if proxy fights don’t have enough drama, the New York Times’ DealBook reports that a new fight is brewing between a Pershing Square dissident nominee for a seat on the board at Target Corp. and the company. The nominee, Ronald Gilson, a law professor at Stanford, has proposed the use of a so-called universal […]

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The Times sources Manifest data today in it’s report on the Barclays AGM. The vote against the Chairman was the largest against vote recorded on the election of a FTSE 100 Chairman during the last five years. Some 16.14% of votes cast were against his re-election, while a further 0.92% of those voting abstained. If […]

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Just a year after approving a new share option programme, shareholders at Hellenic Exchanges (ATH:EXAE) are being asked at their AGM on 6 May to approve the repricing of share options granted during 2008. The options were originally granted at an exercise price of €11.76, with one third vesting annually from the first anniversary of grant. […]

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The EU has taken another step forward in its financial services reform agenda and launched a consultation on the harmonisation of the legal framework surrounding securities transactions and share holding functions. European finance and economy ministers (ECOFIN) have asked the European Commission to put forward legislative proposals to increase legal certainty and efficiency of securities holdings and […]

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Belgium has announced an update to its 2004 comply or explain corporate governance code. The new code attempts to deal with some of the issues flagged up by the current economic crisis with a particular emphasis on  say on pay disclosures. The proposals include publishing a remuneration policy, detailed information for the earnings of each executive director […]

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Last week the European Sustainable Investment Forum, Eurosif, published a Public Policy Position Paper on Sustainable and Responsible Investment . It calls upon the European Commission to adopt measures facilitating the exercise of shareholder rights and transparency. Haven’t we been here before? Well, we’ve been in this direction before, certainly, but not this far. The […]

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Ahead of the Rio Tinto AGMs, Manifest flagged up its concerns regarding the re-election of Sir Roderick Eddington in our meeting business report. Manifest’s US partners, Proxy Governance, issued an ‘against’ recommendation on his re-election. The results of the voting the AGMs in London and Sydney have now been released. Each of the director election […]

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