Investor group urges SEC to reopen proxy rules comment period A group of investors is calling on the SEC to reopen the comment period on amendments to shareholder proxy rules after new data was submitted by its Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA). The DERA data, submitted on August 14, revealed that changes to […]
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DoL questions purpose of shareholder voting The US Department of Labor (DoL) has thrown a new curveball into its approach to governing shareholder rights, questioning the need for asset owners to have their voices heard by companies at all. Following its recent proposals around how asset managers obtain and validate information on the companies they […]
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French proposals to curb shareholder activism spark debate The French government has been criticised for publishing a report suggesting a crackdown on shareholder activism. The report, published at the end of last year, comes as shareholders keenly anticipate how different EU jurisdictions will negotiate capital market issues in the post-Brexit era. Following several high-profile shareholder […]
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Unilever: Votes and Voices Proxy plumbing adds complexity to hotly-contested simplification plan The proposed Unilever vote in October is raising City eyebrows. When the CIO of a UK insurer takes to the pages of the financial media voicing concerns over a voting issue you know it’s serious. David Cumming, head of equities at Aviva Investors, […]
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As implementation of Shareholder Rights Directive II draws closer, attention is (or should be) turning to how we are going to make it happen. A cynic might say that, like MIFID II, “it’s all very well intended but….” OK, fair enough. But seriously, how are we going to get from good intentions to good outcomes? […]
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The International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) and the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA) are urging institutional investors to respond to the latest consultation from the Hong Kong stock exchange which proposed allowing certain companies with dual-class share structures to list. The proposals form part of the stock exchanges aspiration to be a more attractive place to list […]
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Over 100 shareholders have again requisitioned a resolution calling on the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to establish a shareholder committee in a campaign organised by private investor groups – the UK Individual Shareholders Society (ShareSoc) and the UK Shareholders Association (UKSA). The resolution and requisition forms from 161 shareholders were delivered to the RBS’s London […]
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The Investment Association (IA), which represents the UK’s asset management industry, has launched its public register of listed companies which have had significant shareholder rebellions. The IA proposed its development in its response to the government’s green paper on corporate governance in 2016 and was asked to go ahead with the launch of the government’s […]
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No, says veteran US corporate governance activist James McRitichie, In his blog, CorpGov.net, Jim emphatically rebuts the claims made in a paper recently published by the US Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness which argues that the US regulation regarding shareholder resolutions needs reform in order to “improve long-term company performance and investor confidence“. The […]
Read MoreThe independent shareholders of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, overwhelmingly supported a shareholder resolution asking company management to recapitalise the share structure so that each share has one vote at its recent AGM (7th June). The resolution was put forward by NorthStar Asset Management, corporate governance activist and author James McRitchie, and activist investor John Chevedden […]
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