Corporate governance - Vigil

In Corwin v. KKR Financial Holdings LLC, 125 A.3d 304 (Del. 2015), the Delaware Supreme Court held that a non-controlling stockholder transaction approved by informed, unaffiliated stockholders is protected by the business judgement rule and that any lawsuit challenging such a transaction should be dismissed absent well-pleaded allegations of corporate waste. Recognizing that today’s sophisticated stockholder body can and does protect its own interests, Corwin held that in the great run of cases, stockholders—rather than plaintiffs’ lawyers or courts—should have the last word.

The annual scrum between companies and shareholders seeking to have their proposals included in the company’s annual proxy statement is well underway.

The job of a corporate director has become increasingly time consuming. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the director of a public firm spends an average of 248 hours a year on each board, up from 191 hours in 2005.

Cross-border acquisitions have become increasingly popular as more firms expand their businesses across national borders. Yet, politicians frequently make decisions that alter the environment in which firms operate, which creates a significant amount of uncertainty for acquisition decisions. Business executives often cite uncertainty as a major threat to investments and growth. Considering the rising importance of cross-border acquisitions and executives’ concerns over heightened political uncertainty, the authors investigate how political uncertainty affects such decisions.

On December 22, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance released Form 8-K Compliance and Disclosure Interpretation 110.02 and its Office of the Chief Accountant published Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118, which provide guidance on reporting accounting impacts of the recently enacted tax reform legislation.

As we approach the 2018 proxy season, a key change for companies will be the first publication of the CEO Pay Ratio as mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. Companies will begin publishing CEO Pay Ratios in proxy statements in early 2018.

In response to greater financial constraints and more costly external financing, firms may avoid corporate taxes to generate funds for investment. In that sense, outside investors may recognize tax management as a value-increasing activity, especially for a financially constrained firm. However, more aggressive tax avoidance may also be associated with increased opportunities for rent diversion by firm managers. Therefore, the impact of corporate tax avoidance on financial constraints is likely to depend on the strength of a firm’s corporate governance. In an article forthcoming in Financial Management [1],  we examine how corporate governance affects the relationship between a firm’s tax avoidance and its financial constraints.

In our article, CEO Gender and Corporate Board Structure (forthcoming in the Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance), we investigate the relationship between the gender of the CEO and corporate board structures. In recent years, women have made strides in cracking the glass ceiling in leadership positions in corporate America. Female CEOs have been appointed not only in female-friendly industries such as healthcare and consumer products but also in fields that are traditionally dominated by their male counterparts such as energy, utilities or automotive. The number of female CEOs leading S&P 500 companies reached a record high in 2016 with 27 women at the helm of these firms. However, women CEOs only make up 5.4% of the total S&P 500 CEO positions.

Michael Garland, his boss Scott M. Stringer and the New York City Pension Funds are setting a higher bar for corporate boards and other funds with regard to corporate governance standards. I wish more would try to do half as much for shareholders.

Investors and managers of publicly traded firms spend a considerable amount of time speaking privately. According to the consultancy Ipreo, the average publicly traded firm conducts more than 100 one-on-one meetings annually with investors. While growing body of research provides evidence that these offline interactions offer investors in attendance opportunities to make more informed trading decisions. what actually goes on during these interactions has largely been elusive to outsiders.

I am delighted to welcome all of you to the inaugural meeting of the Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee, or “FIMSAC” as many of us like to call it. This is a significant day for the Commission. There are a few matters of importance to discuss, and I will try to be efficient, as I know we are all eager to kick off today’s [January 11, 2018] discussion on bond market liquidity. [1]

President Trump has signed into law the most sweeping changes to business-related federal income tax in over three decades. The new law, referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”), is expected to have far-reaching implications for domestic and multinational businesses as well as domestic and cross-border transactions, impacting the structure, pricing and, in some cases, viability of broad categories of deals.

In 2018, corporate boards will increasingly be called upon to respond to how innovative competitors disrupt their companies’ business models.  These competitors use technology, scale, and sharp insights into consumers to lower prices, improve products and services, and draw customers away fro