Corporate governance - Vigil

Companies recognize the importance of environmental and social (E&S) factors and are giving consideration to a broader group of stakeholders to help mitigate risk. However, new regulations bring uncertainty to the future of environmental, social and governance (ESG) proposals. The rapid spread of the coronavirus is roiling global markets and testing companies’ abilities to handle such a significant crisis. While many aspects of the current outbreak are certainly beyond issuer control, strong company ESG management plays an important role in mitigating downside risk and preserving long-term value. Conversely, poor ESG management could lead to greater negative impacts and a longer road to market recovery.

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) said it sees a loss of around 700 billion yen ($6.6 billion) for the year ended March on the portion of its WeWork investment held outside the Vision Fund, as the virus compounds woes at one of the firm’s biggest bets. The hit extends the group’s expected net loss to 900 billion yen as investments made via the $100 billion fund sour, with the latest writedown illustrating how the group is racing to keep pace with the deteriorating value of its portfolio. “Every writedown takes Wework’s carrying value closer to reality. Clearly the value is zero,” said Kirk Boodry, an analyst at Redex Holdings. SoftBank is embroiled in a legal dispute with directors at WeWork after backing out of a $3 billion tender offer agreed when it bailed out the office-sharing firm following a flopped IPO attempt last year.

Agile teams traditionally excel when their members are co-located. Here’s how to ensure they’re effective now that COVID-19 has forced them to work remotely. As organizations adapt to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, their agile teams can be a real source of competitive advantage. Such teams are typically well suited to periods of disruption, given their ability to adapt to fast-changing business priorities, disruptive technology, and digitization. But the abrupt shift to remote working in response to the coronavirus has challenged the typical approach to managing agile teams. Traditionally, such teams thrive when team members are co-located, with close-knit groups all working in the same place. Co-location allows frequent in-person contact, quickly builds trust, simplifies problem solving, encourages instant communication, and enables fast-paced decision making.

Tesla said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that rather than paying high premiums for it, the company would forego an important type of business insurance policy this year. The decision leaves current and future board members at Tesla reliant on CEO Elon Musk to pay for their legal defense and settlements in a range of high-stakes cases. [...] A professor of corporate governance at the University of Delaware, Charles Elson, doubted Tesla’s board members could be truly independent at this point. “Having the CEO provide D&O personally for the directors is highly problematic because it is meant to protect them from decisions they make about him, among other things. Usually D&O gives them an ability to make decisions without fear of personal liability when they act appropriately,” Elson said. “It’s just a bad idea, in my view.” 

Many investors are waiting on the sidelines for better opportunities to buy stocks. This list includes the likes of Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) and Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) as well, which has led to confusion among investors as stocks look cheaper than they were a few months ago. Carl Icahn (Trades, Portfolio), on the other hand, has given a clear indication to investors with his recent actions. The guru has a reputation for making bold moves, and the latest data suggests that he is living up to his reputation. [...] Despite the uncertainty surrounding the prospects for the global economy, American markets have continued to recover from the bottom reached on March 23. There was significant volatility, but the general direction has been positive in the last few weeks. However, Icahn says this optimism will not last long as the market is still overvalued. In an interview with Bloomberg, the guru said, “You cannot really justify the earnings multiple of 17. Short-term, you may have some big downdrafts.”

As consumers become more careful about sharing data, and regulators step up privacy requirements, leading companies are learning that data protection and privacy can create a business advantage. As consumers increasingly adopt digital technology, the data they generate create both an opportunity for enterprises to improve their consumer engagement and a responsibility to keep consumer data safe. These data, including location-tracking and other kinds of personally identifiable information, are immensely valuable to companies: many organizations, for example, use data to better understand the consumer’s pain points and unmet needs. These insights help to develop new products and services, as well as to personalize advertising and marketing (the total global value of digital advertising is now estimated at $300 billion).

The government has capped pay for private hospital bosses and banned bonuses while their facilities are taken over by the NHS to help during the coronavirus crisis, in a rare example of demanding executive pay limits in return for emergency state support. Under a deal agreed last month, the government took over 8,000 private hospital beds, 20,000 nurses and 700 doctors “at cost” for at least 14 weeks, in what was described as a de facto bailout for the companies. The temporary takeover was designed to provide extra healthcare facilities during a time of national crisis, but has also provided financial relief to the private hospital companies and their shareholders. 

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - Stores and workplaces eager to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus are equipping existing security cameras with artificial intelligence software that can track compliance with health guidelines including social distancing and mask-wearing. Several companies told Reuters the software will be crucial to staying open as concerns about COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus, persist around the world. It will allow them to show not only workers and customers, but also insurers and regulators, that they are monitoring and enforcing safe practices. “The last thing we want is for the governor to shut all our projects down because no one is behaving,” said Jen Suerth, vice president at Chicago-based Pepper Construction, which introduced software from SmartVid.io this month to detect workers grouping at an Oracle Corp project in Deerfield, Illinois.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., are teaming up on a proposal to halt mergers and acquisitions for large companies during the coronavirus pandemic, elevating a progressive cause as Democrats and apparent nominee Joe Biden craft the party's platform ahead of the 2020 election. The “Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act” would impose a moratorium on mergers and acquisitions involving large companies until the Federal Trade Commission “determines that small businesses, workers, and consumers are no longer under severe financial distress,” according to a summary of the proposal reviewed by NBC News.

Market is going to need to 'take a breath and check itself': Morgan Stanley Wealth Management CIO. The majority of the world’s wealthiest investors are waiting for stocks to drop further before buying again, on concerns about the pandemic’s impact on the global economy, according to a poll by UBS Global Wealth Management. [...] High net-worth individuals are cautious on risk assets as 60 per cent say a global recession is highly likely to occur in the next 12 months, the April poll by UBS showed. Still, they remain largely positive about the long-term outlook.

Moves add up to savings of about $23 billion so far, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. General Motors Co. suspended its dividend earlier this week, part of a raft of moves to keep the company afloat in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. It is far from alone. More companies have suspended or canceled their dividends so far this year than in the previous 10 years combined, with companies scrambling to preserve cash as the coronavirus pandemic saps revenue. Through Tuesday, 83 U.S. companies and public investment funds, like real-estate investment trusts, have suspended or canceled their dividends, the highest number in data going back to 2001, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. In the previous 10 years, 55 companies eliminated their dividends—payouts that companies make to shareholders as a reward for standing by them.