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 […]
Read MoreManifest 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 […]
Read MoreLet 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 […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreNick 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 […]
Read MoreSome 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 […]
Read MoreLeading 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 […]
Read MoreThe US has taken another step forward to bring the US proxy process into line with the rest of the world. Late last week (20/02/2009) the Delaware State Bar Association received a number of proposed amendments from its Corporation Law Section Council members. There are three key proposals on the table: Section 112: Access to […]
Read MoreAs the Madoff and Sanford scandals have highlighted, co-operation between regulatory authorities is a crucial protection mechanism for shareholders. The news that the SEC is pulling away from its committment to work with the EU on audit inspection is therefore especially disappointing. Unlike Canada and Japan who are keen to move forward with mutual recognition […]
Read MoreChrysalis is no stranger to director payoff issues, as reported in the Daily Telegraph last year. This year’s annual report is equally revealing. During 2008 Michael Connole received compensation for loss of office of £410,000, while Richard Huntingford received compensation for loss of office of £984,000. Following settlement of the legal dispute over the potential bonus due to […]
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