Corporate governance - Vigil

We are witnessing a shift in global economic activity from advanced markets to emerging ones.  According to the World Bank Group (2021) Global Economic Prospects report, emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) have experienced higher real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates than advanced economies for the past four years and are expected to continue to do so through 2022 and beyond

Netflix shares are getting pummeled after hours because of the company’s weaker-than-expected forecast for subscriber growth. But investors are getting something else they’ve been wanting: a change in corporate governance.

This year, companies should understand key say-on-pay trends as they addressed the COVID-19 pandemic, including overall 2021 say-on-pay results, factors driving say-on-pay failure (i.e., those say-on-pay votes that achieved less than 50% shareholder approval) and equity plan proposal results, as well as guidance from the proxy advisory firms firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis.

Real-estate investors Blackstone Inc. and Starwood Capital Group are teaming up for the second time in less than a year in a big bet on the extended-stay hotel sector.

The threat of tighter regulation is looming, and high-profile stumbles by some companies that went public via SPACs have taught investors some harsh lessons. It turns out investing in unproven upstarts isn’t for everyone, and with interest rates looking likely to rise in coming months, all sorts of speculative investments from technology stocks to bitcoin are getting hit.

A death and two operational incidents at Suncor Energy sites over the past month have hit the company’s oil production.

Suncor released details of the incidents Tuesday in its fourth-quarter production results. And while the news didn’t immediately affect share prices, analysts expressed concern that the events underscore problems with the Calgary-based company’s recent operational track record.

In an extensive piece of research including interviews with 49 asset managers with a total of more than $19 trillion under management, 26 asset owners, and 33 companies with average revenues of $45 billion in 15 countries, we have uncovered why anyone who sees a purpose revolution in progress needs to get their eyes tested.

Key topics include board diversity and board oversight of environmental and social risks.  Highlights of the 2022 policy updates are summarized below:

Walmart top U.S. e-commerce executive Casey Carl is leaving the retailer, according to an internal memo, adding to a string of recent executive shifts at the company.

Corporate Knights’ 2022 ranking of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations is based on a rigorous assessment of nearly 7,000 public companies with revenue over US$1 billion.

We reviewed 68 companies that disclose DEI metrics in their executive compensation design to provide insight into current practices in tying compensation to DEI performance. As this practice is in flux, our review is intended to provide a glimpse of what the future state of DEI incentive metrics might look like. We sought to identify which practices are most impactful in driving progress and accountability, as well as which practices are viewed favorably by investors and proxy advisors.

we are pleased to provide you with the inaugural edition of the Audit Committee Practices Report, a collaborative effort between Deloitte’s Center for Board Effectiveness (Deloitte) and the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ). The report is based on a survey of 246 audit committee members from predominantly large (greater than $700 million market cap), U.S.-based public companies.

In recent years, the number of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) has risen exponentially. Relative to 2010 when SPACs raised $0.1 billion and accounted for 0.3% of IPOs, SPACs in 2020 raised $75.3 billion and accounted for 54.9% of IPOs. In 2021, SPACs more than doubled their 2020 totals, raising in excess of $160 billion.

The U.S. leveraged (high-yield) loan market has more than doubled since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), with nearly $1.2 trillion in outstanding debt in 2019 (Leveraged Commentary and Analysis, LCD). The rise in high-yield corporate debt (bonds included) in the decade following the GFC has prompted concern in the U.S. and Europe, with central bankers and other policy makers frequently pointing to its potential to amplify any economic shock.

Microsoft Corp. in its planned purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. will take on a company with a troubled reputation surrounding its workplace culture, but the risks stemming from those problems are far from insurmountable, deals experts said.

David McCormick, the former chief executive of hedge fund giant Bridgewater Associates who is running for the open Senate seat in Pennsylvania, has the backing of some of Wall Street’s biggest names.

A U.K. High Court on Tuesday threw out a case brought by climate activists against the country’s oil and gas regulator OGA, rejecting their argument that the OGA’s actions amount to a type of unlawful subsidy of the fossil fuel sector.

Canadian investors are pulling money out of the domestic stock market at an unprecedented pace, while redirecting enormous sums into U.S. tech stocks and index funds.

At the Northwestern Law Securities Regulation Institute in 2021, former SEC Chair Mary Schapiro said that, at companies where she was on the board, Fink’s 2020 statement had had “an enormous impact last year.” However, he has also had his denigrators, and this year’s letter allocates a lot of terrain to deflecting criticism that his positions are more aligned with “woke” politics than with making money for shareholders.

This year, we collaborated with Hugessen Consulting to provide perspective and commentary on their annual Director Pulse Survey. The survey analyzes the responses of 75 Canadian director participants collected in the final two weeks of November 2021.

If America were a corporation, investors and regulators would consider its corporate governance a mess. CEO Joe Biden can’t seem to agree with the board—Congress—on strategy, priorities, the budget, or pretty much anything else. Some directors are going rogue, ignoring board meetings and the normal chain of command.