custodian Archives

He who shouts loudest: who’s pulling the strings of cross-border voting reform?

Any choral singer will be familiar with the concept: a choir singing an acapella section will often naturally go ‘flat and lose pitch’, only to have to painfully re-adjust pitch when the orchestra joins in. Conversely, if the orchestra were to be playing in the wrong key (as a violinist and singer, a cruel but amusing […]

Europe’s in chains

Whilst it’s pretty certain that Tina Arena didn’t have the travails of institutional investors in mind when she sang her smash hit “I’m In Chains”, it captures pleas that may have more resonance in such circles than the song itself. Lines such as “A little click and the lock’s on me”, “can’t lift my hands” […]

Novartis voting shambles exposes system weakness

As Swiss pharma giant Novartis squared up to the first of the 2009 European season’s shareholder resolutions, it looks like voting irregularities downstream may be calling the results into question. Novartis are said to be ‘furious’ at the apparent foul ups caused by the overly complicated ‘chain of intermediaries’ which have left some shareholders with […]