Ferrexpo, which manufactures iron ore pellets which are used in the steel industry, has received a high level of opposition from shareholders to a number of resolutions at its AGM this week (19th May) including those relating to the appointment of non-executive directors. This has meant the company will need to call a second vote to […]
Read MorePersimmon seeks to blame proxy advisors for NED’s slim majority Construction firm, Persimmon, faced significant opposition in the vote to elect Nigel Mills as one their non-executive directors. There was a 47% vote against Mills’ appointment, due to independence concerns, at the company’s AGM last week, one of the slimmest margins for a director appointment for some […]
Read MoreWhile US directors say that reputational risk is one of their greatest concerns board members are taking little action to manage risks once they have been identified, according to the sixth Concerns About Risks Confronting Boards survey conducted by US accounting firm EisnerAmper. The report’s authors said that there was a broad trend of boards that identify risk […]
Read MoreCarolyn Fairburn, Director General of business group, the CBI, said that the issue of diversity needs to run right through companies and has called for a new voluntary target of 25% for female senior executives in major UK companies. Speaking recently at an event hosted by law firm Latham & Watkins, Fairburn had been asked to speak about women on […]
Read MoreThe chairman and chief executive of Brazilian investment bank, BTG Pactual, Andre Santos Esteves, has been forced to resign following his arrest amid accusations of bribery. According to press reports, Esteves was accused of allegedly conspiring with Delcidio Amaral, head of the government coalition in the Senate, who was also arrested, to hide evidence. Prosecutors have also alleged that […]
Read MoreNew research from Manifest shows cyber governance risk gaps Despite recent high profile cyber-security breaches, new research by Manifest has found that 36% of the UK’s premium listed companies do not recognise cyber-security amongst their key risks to be disclosed to investors. Not taking cyber-security seriously can be a material cost for companies – the repeated problems […]
Read MoreThere has been a steady improvement in the number of women directors in California’s top 400 public companies according to research by the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. California is a major force within the US economy and and the survey includes many global corporate giants such as Apple, Chevron, Intel, Visa, Google, Hewlett-Packard […]
Read MoreIt’s being quite a few days for corporate governance. First, the unprecedented (at least since our records began in 1996) shock yesterday of Sir John Bond’s ejection as Chair of Glencore Xstrata, whilst in the same week, the PR chicanery currently being played out in the US ahead of JPMorgan’s AGM next week over the question of whether the Chair and Chief Executive […]
Read MoreThe NSW Court of Appeal has overturned the decision of the NSW Supreme Court in respect of seven directors who had received bans on serving as directors. The Supreme Court had found that they had breached their duties to the company (James Hardie) in 2001 over a misleading media release about asbestos compensation. The Court […]
Read MoreThe debate around comply or explain as a concept took an interesting turn last week when three of the UK’s largest pension fund investors publicly broke ranks on the issue of annual director elections. In a letter published in the Financial Times, Railpen, USS and Hermes, the three largest UK pension funds with £106bn assets […]
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