As automatic-enrolment workplace pensions are rolled out to more employees UK pressure group, ShareAction, which campaigns to achieve ‘an investment system that truly serves savers and communities, and protects our environment for the long term’, has produced its first benchmarking survey of the market. The nine leading pension providers in this market were examined and an overall benchmark score […]

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Shareholders in Australian companies are now more likely to have their votes taken on a poll by default instead of the traditional show of hands. Two-thirds of companies targeted by a global collaborative investor initiative have moved towards using polls, according to the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI). The initiative was led by US  pensions provider, TIAA, with […]

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Australian human rights campaigners are warning investors of the risks Spanish multinational infrastructure operator, Ferrovial, could face if its takeover bid of Australian firm Broadspectrum is approved. This company  is the Australian government’s lead contractor in the operation of its controversial offshore detention centres (ODCs) in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. A report has been produced for investors, financiers, clients […]

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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has used Easygroup’s, 12.6% stake in African no-frills airline, Fastjet, to call an extraordinary meeting (EGM) which seeks to remove its chief executive, Ed Winter, and its general counsel and company secretary, Krista Bates. The EGM resolutions seek Winter’s removal as a director as well as chief executive and for Bates to be removed as a […]

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Leading mutual funds and pension funds so far have taken little action to curb the pay of chief executives (CEOs) in the US according to a report by As You Sow, a non-profit organisation that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy. The report identifies the S&P 500 CEOs which its believes are the 100 most overpaid […]

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Activist investors in the US were watching the outcome of  shareholder resolutions at the annual general meeting (AGM) of technology giant, Apple, on Friday (26th February). One of the proposals was seeking greater powers for investors to be able to nominate their own directors and this to be voted on by shareholders at their AGMs, so-called […]

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The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and The Generation Foundation, the advocacy initiative of Generation Investment Management, have launched a three year project which aims to persuade investors to take full account of material sustainability factors in their investment practices and to see this as their clear fiduciary duty. […]

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Following Manifest’s analysis of the extent of illegal dividends paid by UK listed companies [22-Jan-16] the Institute of Chartered Secretaries & Administrators (ICSA) the Financial Reporting Council have issued bulletins to remind companies of their legal responsibilities. Jennifer Walmsley, the FRC’s director of investor engagement, writing on Linked-In, drew attention to the Reporting Lab’s report “Disclosure […]

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The chairman and chief executive of investment giant, BlackRock, Larry Fink has written to the chief executives of major companies in the US and Europe encouraging them to think long-term and to provide their shareholders with more forward-looking plans. Fink wrote a similar letter last year, suggesting that companies have yet to take enough notice of […]

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The relationship between the chairman and the chief executive of a company is absolutely fundamental according to Sir David Walker, former chairman of Barclays, speaking on Radio 4’s, The Bottom Line. In a discussion about managing the boardroom, Michael Jackson, venture capitalist and former chair of Sage Group, said the main role of the chair […]

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