Australian investors hit out at planned proxy rules 14 May, 2021 A proposed Australian government clampdown on proxy advice provision risks limiting the ability of investors to raise issues with corporate boards, investor groups have warned. The rule changes, put forward by Australia’s federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, would force proxy advice firms to make their […]
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Australia has toughened up banking regulation after its upper house, the Senate, passed a law which gives its financial regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority new powers, including the ability to cap bankers’ pay. Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Banking Executive Accountability and Related Measures) Bill 2018 individual bank executives can be held to account for non-compliance […]
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Australia’s 2017 AGM season was significantly “less tumultuous” than the 2016 season, with fewer ‘strikes’ (a 25% vote against) on remuneration reports the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) has reported. Most Australian companies hold their AGMs in October and November and the ASIC reviews the voting results from those meetings each year. The ASIC […]
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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking subsidiaries of pharmaceutical giants GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Novartis to court over misleading marketing of the Voltaren Osteo Gel and Voltaren Emulgel pain relieving gels. It is alleged that both firms claimed that the Osteo Gel was specifically formulated for treating osteoarthritis conditions, and was more effective than Emulgel […]
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Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has been fined £27m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for breaching UK disclosure rules while the US Securities & Exchange Commission has charged the company and former executives with fraud in relation to the acquisition of a coal mine in Mozambique in 2011. Rio Tinto is also being investigated […]
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Australia’s Financial Services Council (FSC) which represents the country’s fund management and pensions industry has launched an Internal Governance and Asset Stewardship Standard for investment managers and asset owners. This is the first stewardship code introduced in Australia and the FSC noted that the country had lagged behind Asian markets including Japan and South Korea as […]
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Most of the largest Australian superannuation (super) pension funds are adopting some form of responsible investment according to a survey by the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA). The RIAA said its Superfund Responsible Investment Benchmarking Report involved a detailed assessment and survey of the largest 50 superfunds in Australia which accounts for around $1.3 […]
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Shareholders of Australian companies are showing their muscle in this year’s proxy season with significant opposition votes over the governance of retailer Harvey Norman and a rejection of executive pay at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The Australian Shareholders Association has called on the chairman of Harvey Norman, Gerry Harvey, to resign and for an independent non-executive […]
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Australian entertainments group, Ardent Leisure, held its AGM just two days after an accident at its theme park Dreamworld in which four people died and two children were injured on a river rapids ride. The out-going chairman, Neil Banaves, offered sincere condolences to the victims and their families but said that despite the seriousness of the incident they were still required to convene the AGM […]
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Mortgage Choice (ASX:MOC) chairman, Peter Ritchie, has resigned abruptly, raging at proxy advisors for “damaging Australian business” after another bruising shareholder revolt at last week’s AGM. Close to 80% of the Australian firm’s independent shareholders voted against the remuneration report, the third such vote, leading Ritchie to blame the outcome on analysts. The key issues were standard red […]
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