Corporate governance - Vigil

Après avoir verdi son portefeuille, la Caisse de dépôt et placement change de cible et veut maintenant encourager les entreprises dans leurs efforts de décarbonation avec des investissements de 400 milliards de dollars. La nouvelle stratégie climatique de la Caisse rendue publique jeudi « est un nouveau chapitre dans notre stratégie d’investissement durable », résume son PDG, Charles Emond, au cours d’un entretien avec La Presse. « Aujourd’hui, 85 % du presque 500 milliards de notre actif total sont des actifs à zéro ou à faible émission, alors on atteint pas mal la limite de ça, explique-t-il. On va aller vers la décarbonation de l’économie réelle. » La Caisse veut investir 400 milliards au cours des cinq prochaines années dans des entreprises « qui ont un plan précis de décarbonation, certifié et approuvé », et dans les solutions qui partagent cet objectif dans la technologie, les services et les infrastructures.

News Corp’s chief executive has become the highest-paid CEO of an Australian-listed company, a new analysis of CEO pay has found. Chief executives of ASX-listed companies are still being paid 55 times more than average workers in Australia but the gap is yet to widen to extremes seen overseas, according to the annual analysis from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI). Robert Thomson, who heads up the American media company News Corp, was paid nearly $42m in 2024, a $300,000 pay rise compared with the previous year, when he was the second-highest-paid Australian chief.

Today’s leaders face multidimensional uncertainty, and many have failed to anticipate the volatility and ambiguity of the moment. In contrast to previous periods, this disruption is more profound, with the very nature of how the world does business changing in real time. The news is noisy, the pace of change is rapid-fire, and geopolitics are destabilizing. As a result, boards have never been more essential to the success of the companies they serve. However, boards often are not engaged early enough to provide advice and counsel on critical decisions, and as a result must make up for lost time later. By bringing boards into critical business decisions sooner, organizations can improve risk management, strategic guidance, governance, accountability, and communication.

The conversation around climate governance has matured. What was once treated as a separate sustainability issue is now becoming deeply embedded in core business strategy and risk management. Yet organisations continue to grapple with fundamental challenges: developing compelling business cases for decarbonisation investment, navigating stakeholder expectations during a volatile transition, and translating commitments into practical action. These themes – ranging from the integration of climate strategy to the practicalities of circularity – will be front and centre at the AICD's 2025 Climate Governance Forum in August.

Nippon Steel's $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel closed on Wednesday, the companies said, confirming an unusual degree of power for the Trump administration after the Japanese company's 18-month struggle to close the purchase. Under the deal terms, Nippon bought 100% of U.S. Steel shares at $55 per share, as it first laid out in its December 2023 offer for the well-known and struggling steelmaker. The filing also discloses details of a national security agreement inked with the Trump administration, which gives President Donald Trump the authority to name a board member as well as a non-economic golden share. Eiji Hashimoto, Nippon Steel’s Chairman and CEO, thanked Trump for his role, adding that "Nippon Steel is excited about opening a new chapter of U. S. Steel’s storied history."

When American fund manager Steven Wood set his sights on the storied Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group, he tried a suitably stylish opening gambit. He sent Chief Executive Nick Hayek cigars; a favorite book, “The Luxury Strategy” by Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien; and a handwritten note laying out opportunities he saw for Swatch’s luxury brands to recapture market share. Sales at Swatch had grown for years thanks to the popularity of its chic brands like Breguet, Blancpain and Omega, but since founder Nicolas G. Hayek’s death in 2010, its high-end offerings have lost market share. Last year sales plunged in China, one of its most important markets, and the company’s stock is now one of the most-shorted in Europe.

Corporate America is convinced: Fewer employees means faster growth. U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years, according to employment data-provider Live Data Technologies. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk. The cuts go beyond typical cost-trimming and speak to a broader shift in philosophy. Adding talent, once a sign of surging sales and confidence in the future, now means leaders must be doing something wrong. New technologies like generative artificial intelligence are allowing companies to do more with less. But there’s more to this movement. From Amazon AMZN 0.63%increase; green up pointing triangle in Seattle to Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C., and at companies big and small everywhere in between, there’s a growing belief that having too many employees is itself an impediment. 

Calgary-based energy infrastructure company Keyera Corp. announced Tuesday it will acquire all of Plains’ Canadian natural gas liquids business, along with some U.S. assets, for $5.15-billion. The acquisition will significantly expand Keyera’s liquids infrastructure business by creating an integrated natural gas liquids (NGL) corridor that stretches from western to eastern Canada. The assets at the heart of the deal include extraction, storage, pipelines, and rail and truck terminals in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. Dean Setoguchi, chief executive of Keyera, told investors on a call Tuesday afternoon that the deal is a defining moment for the company.

DHL Express Canada suspend ses activités dans tout le pays en raison d’une grève et d’un lock-out impliquant 2100 chauffeurs routiers et autres travailleurs, ce qui ajoute à la confusion sur le marché des colis. Face à l’impasse, l’entreprise annonce l’interruption des livraisons de colis à compter de vendredi, date d’entrée en vigueur de la loi fédérale interdisant les travailleurs de remplacement. La cueillette de colis à destination du Canada cessera donc mardi soir à 21 h, précise DHL dans un courriel. La porte-parole Pamela Duque Rai met de l’avant l’enlisement des négociations avec Unifor et la législation connue sous le nom de projet de loi C-58, « qui interdit le recours à des employés de remplacement pour atténuer l’incidence de l’action syndicale ».

Après les centaines de millions d’argent public perdus et les licenciements massifs, l’ex-mine de diamants Renard, qui devait incarner la relance du Plan Nord, se dirige vers un démantèlement. Son changement de vocation proposé au profit du lithium ne convainc guère les financiers. Malgré plus d’une année de démarches, Ressources Winsome doit se rendre à l’évidence : elle risque de manquer de temps pour exercer d’ici le 31 août l’option d’achat qui lui permettrait d’acquérir le complexe à l’arrêt depuis octobre 2023. « Si les conditions ne changent pas, si les investissements et l’appui des gouvernements ne sont pas là, nous allons prendre la décision de ne pas aller de l’avant », confirme à La Presse la vice-présidente du développement durable et des affaires réglementaires de la société minière australienne, Geneviève Morinville.

Software company SAP SE and an IBM Corp. subsidiary are embroiled in a C$1.1 billion ($810 million) technology boondoggle that triggered both a public inquiry and an anti-corruption investigation in Quebec.

Alexandra Langelier, executive vice president with the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations, said the inquiry is an essential exercise in determining whether the board asked “questions at the right time” and understood the complexity of IT implementations.

The European Commission is set to propose on Tuesday a ban on EU imports of Russian gas and liquefied natural gas by the end of 2027, using legal measures to ensure the plan cannot be blocked by EU members Hungary and Slovakia. The proposals will set out how the European Union plans to fix into law its vow to end decades-old energy relations with Europe’s former top gas supplier Russia, made after Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. An internal Commission summary of the upcoming proposal, seen by Reuters, said it would fix into law a ban on imports of Russian pipeline gas and LNG from January 1, 2026, with longer deadlines for certain contracts.

The Spanish bank Sabadell has said it has received interest from prospective buyers of its UK division TSB, and said it would assess any firm offers it may receive. Sabadell wants to sell TSB as it battles to fend off an €11bn (£9.4bn) hostile approach from its Spanish rival BBVA. The Catalonia-based lender said it had received “preliminary non-binding expressions of interest” for TSB from unnamed bidders, and would examine any potential binding offer. TSB, which has 175 branches in the UK, has more than 5 million customers and 5,000 staff. Sabadell acquired TSB,  which was previously owned by Lloyds Banking Group, for £1.7bn a decade ago. At the time, the bank wanted to “internationalise” and expand outside Spain.

Le ministre russe de l’Économie, Maxime Rechetnikov, a estimé jeudi que le pays était « au bord » de la récession si l’État ne prenait pas les bonnes « décisions » dans les prochaines semaines, en plein ralentissement de la croissance après deux années de surchauffe. Si l’économie russe avait fait preuve en 2023 et 2024 d’une résilience inattendue face aux sanctions prises par les Occidentaux depuis 2022 en représailles à l’offensive russe en Ukraine, la conjoncture a changé depuis quelques mois. Les lourds investissements dans le complexe militaro-industriel pour soutenir l’armée russe ne permettent plus de tirer l’économie russe, ralentie notamment, selon certains observateurs, par la politique monétaire très stricte menée par la Banque centrale (BCR). Celle-ci veut absolument lutter contre l’inflation qui tourne à 10 %.

Australia’s top chief executives have watched their collective pay packets shrink in real terms over the past decade, and termination payouts are down nearly 90 per cent since a crackdown on egregious “golden parachute” exits during the global financial crisis. Research from governance advisory group the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI) shows investors have successfully reined in the pay of ASX-listed CEOs with the help of changes to the Corporations Law after the financial crisis and backlash over egregious pay practices. But it flagged more work is needed on overly generous bonuses for company bosses.

Private equity sponsors use designated directors on portfolio company boards to facilitate a deeper level of investment oversight and informed exercise of approval and veto rights. While it is generally expected that designated directors will share information about the portfolio company with the sponsor, such directors and the sponsor should exercise caution when that information could be confidential or privileged. The circumstances in which a designated director can (and cannot) share confidential information with the sponsor have been discussed in detail by the Delaware Court of Chancery in two recent decisions: Hyde Park Venture Partners Fund III, L.P. et al. v. FairXchange, LLC and Icahn Partners LP et al. v. deSouza et al. This article addresses high-level considerations for sponsors and designated directors in sharing confidential information.

U.S. President Donald Trump will extend a June 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of short video app TikTok for 90 days despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown absent significant progress, the White House said on Tuesday. Trump had already twice granted a reprieve from enforcement of a congressionally mandated ban on TikTok that was supposed to take effect in January. “President Trump will sign an additional executive order this week to keep TikTok up and running,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. That would extend the deadline to mid-September.

The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, the first of what the industry hopes will be a wave of bills to bolster its legitimacy and reassure consumers. The fast-moving legislation, which passed by a 68-30 vote and will be sent to the House for potential revisions, comes on the heels of a 2024 campaign cycle in which the crypto industry ranked among the top political spenders in the country, underscoring its growing influence in Washington and beyond. Eighteen Democratic senators crossed the aisle to vote for the legislation on Tuesday, siding with the Republican majority in the 53-47 Senate. Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Rand Paul were the only members of their party to oppose the measure.

Warner Bros. Discovery will cut CEO David Zaslav’s pay when it splits in two next year—and give him an extra slug of stock options that will net more than $150 million if the company hits share-price targets. The new pay package goes into effect only if the split happens by the end of 2026, but Zaslav already received options for nearly 21 million shares last week. The underlying stock was valued at more than $200 million at the time. The board gave priority to retaining Zaslav and giving him strong incentives by tying pay to performance, board chair Samuel Di Piazza said. The company emphasized that Zaslav’s options could ultimately bring him little or nothing.

President Trump is breathing life into a $10 billion project to alleviate congestion at the country’s busiest border crossing for trade between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump this month issued a presidential permit to Austin, Texas-based Green Corridors to build an 165-mile elevated “guideway” for self-driving shuttles to haul freight between Laredo, Texas, and Monterrey, Mexico. Chief Executive Mitch Carlson said Green Corridors plans to build four cross-border terminals of about 100 acres each, two in Laredo and two in Monterrey, which would be connected via the extended corridor.

The leaders of the world’s rich democracies agreed to work together to build critical mineral supply chains and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence, but they made few strides in addressing the U.S. trade war which hung over the Group of Seven summit. After two days of meetings in Kananaskis, Alta., G7 leaders published six joint statements addressing a narrow range of economic and security issues, such as advanced computer technology and wildfire prevention. This was done instead of publishing a single joint communiqué, as happens after most G7 meetings. The decision to go issue-by-issue, in a bid to get consensus from all the leaders, reflects the deep divisions over global trade that have emerged since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

La Ville de Longueuil souhaite ajouter un centre de congrès et un hôtel d’envergure au développement immobilier qui se réalise dans son quartier de « centre-ville » autour de la station de métro. Ce projet, qui comprendrait aussi un important « volet résidentiel », serait érigé sur un terrain dont la Ville est propriétaire situé au coin des rues Saint-Charles et Charles-LeMoyne, en face de l’immeuble de bureaux où loge l’Université de Sherbrooke et voisin du nouvel édifice résidentiel Sir Charles. « C’est un emplacement stratégique pour ce projet qui vise à atténuer le manque d’espaces de réunion d’envergure à Longueuil, tout en rehaussant l’offre hôtelière encore insuffisante et en ajoutant des centaines de logements dans le secteur du métro », a expliqué la mairesse Catherine Fournier, lors d’un entretien avec La Presse.

Les projets de barrages hydroélectriques sont très risqués. Bien plus que les projets de ponts, de pipelines ou d’éoliennes. Mais attention, leurs risques d’explosion des coûts ne sont rien comparés aux plus imprévisibles : les projets informatiques. Ce constat vient d’une étude publiée au début de mai par une équipe dirigée par Bent Flyvbjerg, le plus éminent économiste sur le sujet, de l’Université d’Oxford, au Royaume-Uni. L’étude est fort instructive dans le contexte du scandale de SAAQclic, que la commission Gallant décortique. Plus de 11 000 projets de 126 pays ont été regroupés en 23 catégories (ponts, pipeline, éolienne, etc.) puis analysés. Dans 19 des 23 catégories, plus de la moitié des projets ont subi des dépassements de coûts1.

Mark Carney and Donald Trump have agreed to negotiate with the aim of striking “within the coming 30 days” an economic and security deal that would end the Canada-U.S. trade war, the Prime Minister’s Office says. The commitment followed a 70-minute meeting between Mr. Carney and the U.S. President at the Group of Seven summit in Canada’s Rocky Mountains. Further Canada-U.S. talks are scheduled for later this week, after the global meeting is over, Dominic LeBlanc, the federal minister responsible for Canada-U.S. relations, told reporters.

What happens when a boardroom falls behind the curve of a technology that’s reshaping industries, economies, and ethical boundaries all at once? Artificial intelligence isn’t just another trend — it’s a transformational force. And boards that fail to engage meaningfully with its governance risk more than missed opportunities; they risk irrelevance. In this shifting landscape, how can boards lead with confidence, foresight, and accountability?