Corporate governance - Vigil

Saudi Arabia has restarted plans to list more shares of Aramco, the world’s most valuable oil company, according to people familiar with the company’s strategy, with an ambition to sell as much as a $50 billion stake, which at current valuations would be 2.5% of the company.

Early in 2021 we published a paper called, “Not-for-Profit Board Diversity & Inclusion: Is it essentially window-dressing?” For that study, we interviewed 26 experienced thought-leaders in not-for-profit board governance, asking about their experience with building diverse boards in the sector. We were deliberate in reaching out to a broad cross-section of community leaders, including members of Canada’s Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities.

Corporate integrity is highly valued among senior executives and employees worldwide. A record 97% of respondents to the EY Global Integrity Report 2022 agree that integrity is important. More companies are investing in integrity training and have published statements of organizational values or conduct codes. 

In a sea of red for nearly all sectors this year, companies producing oil and gas are a rare spot of green. While the S&P 500 is down almost 4% year to date, oil-and-gas exploration companies in the index are up 25%.

Shell Chairman Andrew Mackenzie promised in December that unifying its corporate identity in the U.K. would “allow for an acceleration in shareholder distributions and speed up Shell’s transition to a net-zero emissions energy business.” Within a week of becoming fully British, the company has given financial investors what they were promised, but any green-focused investors aren’t yet so fortunate.

Businesses today are expected to have policies and strategies focused on long-term value creation and to give greater visibility into a broad range of topics outside of traditional financial metrics, allowing stakeholders to better understand a company’s ESG risks and growth opportunities.

Latin America, already pummeled by the pandemic, now faces a sharp increase in poverty and an exodus of its citizens to elsewhere in the world.

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is expected to post rising revenues but a modest decline in profit as it ramps up spending to execute the pivot to the metaverse as outlined late last year by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg.

my new paper reveals an unsung virtue of anonymity in the ownership of business enterprises. Anonymous companies, whose owners are practically untraceable, are not always “getaway cars” deployed for illicit purposes but can arguably serve socially beneficial functions. For instance, anonymous companies were instrumental in bringing the first abortion drug to the United States at a time when no pharmaceutical company was willing to do so for fear of drawing an anti-abortion backlash.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has picked up a stake in Hopper Inc. in a secondary financing that establishes the Montreal online travel company as one of Canada’s most valuable private technology enterprises.

The variety of potential sources for ESG data may pose a challenge to companies trying to put a disclosure controls and procedures framework in place. This guide includes some suggestions and considerations for public companies in developing disclosure controls and related policies and procedures for ESG information.

The asset management industry has been sounding the alarm for some time about the risks and opportunities posed by climate change.  While private equity giant, Carlyle, is the most recent financial institution to hit the headlines for its pledge to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, it is not the first and certainly will not be the last.

KPMG has been sued for £1.3bn by the liquidators of Carillion, who claim the auditor missed “red flags” that the UK outsourcer’s accounts were misstated and that the group was insolvent more than two years before it collapsed.

Richard Liu, founder and chief executive officer of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com Inc is giving billions of dollars of stock to charity, the latest member of the country’s business elite to make a large donation amid a government crackdown on China’s tech sector.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy SA, one of the world’s largest makers of wind turbines, replaced its chief executive—a change-up the company said was triggered by profit shortfalls related to pandemic-era supply-chain disruptions.

CEOs, in particular founder-CEOs, are often visionaries with strong beliefs about the right strategic direction for their firms. How should a board of directors that does not necessarily share the visionary CEO’s strong convictions advise and monitor the CEO?

RCF Management LLC, one of Iamgold Corp.’s  biggest shareholders, is pushing for a revamp of its board of directors, saying the Canadian gold company is poorly managed and in need of an urgent fix.

U.S. and European activist investors are targeting some of the U.K.’s biggest publicly traded companies, taking advantage of slumping stock prices to push for company breakups and other changes.

The U.S. national debt exceeded $30 trillion for the first time, reflecting increased federal borrowing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Shareholders in Costco Wholesale Corporation have voted – against the board’s wishes – in favor of a proposal urging the retail company to set targets for reaching net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.