The East West Management Institute (EWMI) has released the latest findings of its semi-annual survey of online investor relations of the ten largest listed company by market cap in 11 Central and Eastern European Countries. According to research assistant, Igor Solodovnik, the results show a disappointing decrease in disclosure standards across all the categories surveyed. As part […]

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has moved a step closer to approving the New York Stock Exchange’s Rule 452 proposal to eliminate broker discretionary voting in director elections.  This proposal was developed by the Exchange’s Proxy Working Group in 2006. The NYSE has recently re-filed its proposed amendment to Rule 452 and includes […]

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It’s lucky for Xstrata that it’s listed in the UK rather than France otherwise their EGM results announcement would have a different story to tell about the level of shareholder unhappiness at yesterday’s meeting to approve the Glencore deal. Put another way, shareholders didn’t lend the overwhelming support to Xstrata’s proposals that the company would like you […]

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The UK’s FSA has moved swiftly to address the market’s concerns about rights issues  timetable problems. Until mid-February 2009 the Listing Rules’ required a 21 day subscription period; this has now been reduced to 10 business days. The new subscription is a minimum subscription period and applies only to non-statutory rights issues (i.e. where the […]

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Manifest is very sad to report the passing of Miss Kuny Kobayashi, the founder of Governance Visions, a Japanese proxy voting agency. We first got to know Kuny during Manifest’s partnership with IRRC and we were impressed with her determination to reform the governance and proxy problems in the Japanese market. Before passing away last […]

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Let it not be said that the world of shareholder oversight and fiscal prudence is without its lighter moments. Here are two offerings from YouTube contributor LMcDuff with a musical take on the demise of the US financial system. Wall Street Meltdown is his first offering and chronicles the financial crisis as it developed duing […]

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The FSA’s new  draft code of remuneration code of practice has put good governance front and centre by insisting that remuneration is tied to effective risk management. The proposed policy is a follow-up to the letters written to the CEOs of FSA authorised companies in October 2008. What is notable about the proposals is that the Governance […]

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Nick Hassel in The Times commented earlier this month: “The stock market has been declared dead many times before. We heard this in 1979, in 2003, and are hearing it now in 2009. The consolation is that, on those two previous occasions, the desire to obituarise was just another sign that shares had touched their […]

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Some 31.1% of votes cast at the AGM of Novartis, held in Switzerland on Tuesday, supported the proposal by Ethos and eight other shareholders that the company should provide shareholders with an annual advisory vote on the remuneration report. A further 2.9% of the votes cast were in the form of positive abstentions. In all […]

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Leading global investors, with assets totalling over $1.3 trillion, have written to US President Barack Obama urging the new administration to implement “critical” legal reforms to US financial markets and corporate governance practices. The institutions, representing the pension savings of some 15 million individuals globally, called for fundamental reforms as a means of restoring investor […]

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