The world of corporate governance and shareholder voting appears to have plumbed new depths this week with charges of fraud being levied against a unit of RCS Capital Corp in relation to shareholder voting. http://www.sec.state.ma.us/sct/current/sctrealtycapital/Realty-Capital-Complaint-11-12-15.pdf According to the complaint, RCS employees used “fake accents” to pass themselves off as real shareholders in order to meet […]
Read MoreThose of us familiar with Disney’s “Herbie” film series were perhaps not at all surprised at the recent travails to have hit VW. After all, if their cars can be intelligent enough to compete on their own in rally-car races, surely rigging the odd emissions test or two would be simple to do? Back in […]
Read MoreBack in September 2011, the FT ran a story exploring the frustrations felt by investors over complexity and opacity in the voting chain (“Call for clarity in proxy voting process”, FTfm, 12th September 2011). In many ways the article was no different to much of the other hand-wringing that has characterised commentary on this subject. […]
Read MoreThe simple but powerful statement of solidarity with the notion of a free society that articulated the public reaction to the recent horrific events at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris shows just how important freedom is in our modern age. Not just freedom of expression, but freedom of belief and movement too. “Je […]
Read MoreOr: “one person’s economic stimulus might be another’s entrenchment opportunity”. On 25 June 2014, as part of its ongoing recovery plan, the Italian Government adopted Law Decree no. 91/2014 the so-called “Development Decree” or “DECRETO sviluppo imprese”. Like the USA’s “Jump-start our Business Startups Act” (JOBS Act), the Decree is intended to stimulate enterprise and […]
Read MoreWhen Dale Wannen of US investment advisor Sustainvest Asset Management wanted Irish pharmaceuticals company Actavis to publish an annual sustainability report he didn’t just write a letter to the directors, or lobby a regulator for a rule change, he took matters into his own hands and proposed a shareholder resolution.
Read MoreApril is probably not the ideal month to launch a consultation for anyone involved in corporate governance, nevertheless the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) issued a call for comment on its proposed best practice guidance for the proxy research industry. The consultation was scheduled to close on June 23rd, however following representation from stakeholders, the CSA has granted […]
Read MoreThe Australian federal government has mooted a draft bill which, if it succeeds, will remove the right of a 100 shareholders to call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM). According to the announcement from Mathias Cormann, acting assistant treasurer, the draft bill contains proposed changes to the Australian corporations act that are aimed at removing “unnecessary […]
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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