Corporate governance - Vigil

Johnson & Johnson spent $1.4bn on a contentious legal manoeuvre that created a subsidiary to manage multibillion-dollar claims relating to its talc and placed it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company’s chief financial officer Joseph Wolk said on Tuesday.

The recovery is sputtering and some exporters say separation from the European Union is the culprit; ‘harder, slower, more expensive, more difficult’

Information technology budgets next year are expected to rise at a faster rate than they have in more than 10 years with chief information officers deploying tools to support more modular and adaptable business models.

IT budgets, which are expected to increase 2% this year, are forecast to grow 3.6% in 2022, according to research released Monday by Gartner Inc. The technology research and advisory firm based its finding on a global survey of almost 2,400 CIO and technology executives across industries.

Members of a congressional committee questioned whether Amazon executives misled them during an investigation of the company’s business practices and if they may have lied under oath.

On October 7th SE confirmed it will manufacture some of the world’s most advanced logic microprocessors, based on its novel “gate-all-around” architecture with transistors measuring three nanometres (billionths of a metre), in 2022. It also surprised analysts by announcing a plan to mass-produce two-nanometre chips from 2025. It is forecast to invest an eye-watering $37bn or so in capital expenditure across its businesses this year. And it is winning new customers, such as Nvidia, an American chip designer, and Tesla, an electric-car maker.

The frenetic world of tech startups seems like appealing target for CIOs looking to gain board experience. But choose carefully, say CIOs who have taken the leap.

Le producteur de cannabis de Gatineau a annoncé lundi le départ immédiat de son PDG Sébastien St-Louis, qui est aussi cofondateur d'Hexo. La démission du chef des opérations, Donald Courtney, est également annoncée. Ce dernier continuera toutefois d’exercer ses fonctions jusqu’à ce qu’un remplaçant soit trouvé.

THG plans to scrap a controversial takeover defence and move to the premium segment of the London Stock Exchange as it tries to restore investor confidence after sharp falls in its share price.

The Manchester-based ecommerce company, formerly known as The Hut Group, said on Monday it would abolish the “special share” rights held by co-founder and chief executive Matthew Moulding by the end of 2022.

The share gives Moulding an effective veto over any hostile takeover of the company and is one of the reasons it adopted a standard listing, which prevents its shares being included in FTSE indices, when it floated in September 2020.

Startup creators once tended to take little or no remuneration as CEOs. Now, some are getting giant stock awards, making them among America’s best-compensated corporate chiefs.

Increasingly assertive institutional investors, aggressive hedge fund activists, empowered ESG experts, and powerful proxy advisors are ramping up their demands on public company boards. These and other influential stakeholders are scrutinizing corporate boards to see if they have the right people to succeed—and that they are committed to effective refreshment, board succession, and board evaluation practices. For these reasons, Russell Reynolds is updating its prior advice to directors and boards on how to successful navigate these heightened expectations. Those found wanting are more likely than ever to face meaningful consequences, including losing for support incumbent directors in both contested and uncontested elections.

The fast-growing e-commerce business of luxury retailer Saks Fifth Avenue is aiming to go public soon at a valuation roughly triple what it was pegged at earlier this year, in a sign of the boom times for online department-store sales.

Saks is interviewing potential underwriters this week for an initial public offering that could take place in the first half of 2022 and targets a valuation of around $6 billion, people familiar with the matter said. It was last valued at $2 billion in March.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment strategies are often marketed with claims that they can outperform in terms of risk-adjusted returns. In this webinar, J.P. Morgan Asset Management peels back the layers of these claims and dives deep into what drives financial performance of ESG investments.

Royal Dutch Shell’s head of gas and renewable energy is leaving the business after 25 years, the latest shake-up in the teams leading the transition towards cleaner fuels at Europe’s energy majors.

Maarten Wetselaar will be replaced as director of integrated gas and renewable and energy solutions by the current head of upstream Wael Sawan, the company said on Friday.

PwC has agreed to sell its global mobility services business to the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice for about $2.2bn, in its biggest disposal for almost two decades.

The unit, which advises companies on tax and immigration issues when they move staff overseas, operates in a market hit by the pandemic. The buyout group hopes the business is now well placed to benefit from a rebound as travel restrictions ease.

Jared Kushner’s family real-estate company is for the first time turning to a nonfamily member to lead the business, after the former senior White House adviser said that he wouldn’t be returning.

Two decades of research show that, while large deals still have their place, programmatic M&A strategies continue to create gains in excess total returns to shareholders, at lower levels of risk.

CEOs routinely make multiple pledges and commitments to key stakeholders. They might offer improved capital discipline as well as the ability to future-proof their business with the proper technologies. They may commit to the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing community in improving their environmental performance and reaching the emissions targets of a given country. CEOs can vow to use advanced analytics (AI/ML) and other proven digital technologies to boost production and productivity. All of these are important corporate-level goals that CEOs commit to attaining. However, on closer inspection, there appears to be a disconnect between these commitments and the actual reality.

Volvo Cars will list its shares next week in an offering that could value the Chinese-owned premium carmaker at up to $23bn.

The Swedish carmaker is expecting to raise up to SKr34bn ($3.9bn), with its shares due to start trading on October 28.

Toyota Motor Corp’s North American unit said Monday it will invest about $3.4-billion (380 billion yen) on U.S. automotive battery development and production in the United States through 2030.

The world’s largest automaker by volume also said it plans to establish a new company and build a new U.S. automotive battery plant together with Toyota Tsusho, the automaker’s metals trading arm and a unit of the Toyota Group.

Shares in online gambling software company Playtech soared by more than 50 per cent on Monday after the group agreed to a £2.7bn takeover by Australian slot machine developer Aristocrat Leisure.

The acquisition of Playtech, which was founded by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, will help to increase Aristocrat’s scale in the online sports betting market in the US. Isle of Man-based Playtech has recently expanded in North America as states including New Jersey have relaxed rules allowing online gambling and sports betting to take place.

After an unprecedented year of investor support for environmental, social and governance (ESG) petitions at companies worldwide, board members are bracing themselves for more pressure in the months ahead.

A record 12 proposals on environmental issues filed at US companies in 2021 were passed with a majority of shareholder support, according to law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, which has analysed voting patterns in annual general meetings.

Though the Department of the Treasury’s actions do not prohibit victim companies from paying ransoms, they add another layer of complexity for victim companies deciding whether to pay. Paying a ransom carries short-term and long-term consequences, carries legal and regulatory risk, as highlighted by the Department of the Treasury’s recent actions, and could shape the outlook and reputation of a company for years to come. The decision also is one most companies will have to make. Ransomware groups continue to proliferate, and attacks have become more common, sophisticated, and successful.

Many investors take into account corporate governance in their investment decisions. Retail companies are generally in-line with the governance norms of companies across the S&P 500, although differences exist in corporate governance trends between brick-and-mortar retail companies and e-commerce retail companies. For example, e-commerce retailers have greater rates of board refreshment and are more likely to separate the roles of CEO and chair than their brick-and mortar counterparts. Furthermore, e-commerce retailers are more likely to permit shareholders to act via written consent and are less likely to permit shareholders to call a special meeting.

Retail companies should consider what governance practices work best for their particular products, customer base, board composition, investor base and strategic objectives. Analyzing broader industry trends can be helpful, but companies should determine their practices based on conversations with directors, investors and key stakeholders.

With so much uncertainty about, well, everything, people are realizing that innovation — the process by which new things create value — is essential to thriving going forward. In my work advising senior teams on strategy and innovation topics, I’m getting a lot of inquiries along the lines of, “We need to create an innovation capability, but we don’t know where to start.”

Asking yourself these five questions is a good place to begin. In my experience, you can work your way through them, ideally with a little experienced guidance, in about 30 days. By then, you will know what projects are essential to succeed, how you will get projects into your portfolio (and which you might need to get out of it), where your innovation and growth unit will be located, and how you’ll start to work in earnest with a few small projects.

The spillover effect of China Evergrande Group’s debt problems on the banking system is controllable, a central bank official said on Friday, in rare official comments on a liquidity crisis at China’s No. 2 developer that has roiled global markets.