Corporate governance - Vigil

In a recent study, I examine whether better access to public firm disclosures can affect IPO underpricing through information spillover. At the conceptual level, externalities can occur because corporate disclosure is a public good. Although disclosures are intended mainly to inform a publicly listed firm’s current and prospective shareholders, other parties (e.g., competitors, suppliers, consumers, employees) may also use the information disclosed. In that sense, corporate disclosures can generate externalities.

These subjects pose a much more complex challenge than the cash demands of yore. Worse for Apple: its biggest shareholders can no longer be relied on to toe the corporate line. It is enough to make Tim Cook yearn for dinner with Carl Icahn.

A record number of companies including Rent the Runway and Sweetgreen went public last year with shares that deny voting powers to most investors, a setback for asset managers pushing back against unaccountable corporate leadership.

The Financial Times argues that Apple will face increasing pressure from activist investors, as the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) allows more shareholder resolutions to proceed to a vote.

If insiders manipulate the information flow in their companies to maximize their benefit, this can potentially hurt the shareholders. Similarly, if insiders’ actions send a wrong signal about corporate governance in their firms, this can also hurt the shareholders. If they donate overvalued stock, the donation will not benefit the charities as much as they claim. Finally, if they unfairly maximize their tax deductions, this can hurt taxpayers. Given the significant policy implications of these findings, we revisit this important issue in an attempt to clarify why insiders are able to time their gifts successfully.

3D Investment Partners Pte, the second-largest investor in Toshiba Corp., has called for a special meeting of the Japanese company’s shareholders as it steps up its opposition to a separation plan, people familiar with the matter said.

Based on more than a decade serving in corporate board rooms, here are 10 questions I believe every company should address as they embed an ESG strategy. If corporations fail to address these questions, there is a risk that they will be overtaken by rivals and, at the extreme, could even cease to exist.

As banks and investors increase their emphasis on climate change as a part of their business strategies, it is important for businesses to adapt their own operations and policies accordingly. By not doing so, businesses risk reduced access to the capital needed to operate, grow, and conduct transactions.

This episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast—one of three episodes exploring the various challenges around ESG—delves into the element that is most often overlooked, but has been put into a sharp focus by the pandemic: the S. Senior partner Vivian Hunt and Bruce Simpson, CEO of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation and a senior adviser to McKinsey on ESG and purpose, discuss engagement on social issues with Franz Paasche, who heads up corporate affairs globally for PayPal, a role that includes stakeholder management.

Société Générale vehicle-leasing business, ALD SA,  agreed to acquire rival LeasePlan Corporation NV in a cash-and-share deal worth 4.9 billion euros, equivalent to $5.54 billion, the French bank said Thursday. 

Dave Fuller, the president of the wireless division at Rogers Communications Inc., is leaving the company and will be replaced by longtime executive Phil Hartling, according to a source familiar with the matter.

A group of 17 Republican AGs, led by Arizona AG Mark Brnovich, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. SEC, No. 21-60626, in support of a challenge to the SEC’s approval of a Nasdaq board diversity rule.

As we anticipate new proposals from the SEC on human capital and climate disclosure, this recent paper from the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford, Seven Myths of ESG, seems to be especially timely.

The verdict in the criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes completes a chapter in the tangled tale of Theranos. Meanwhile, the power that founders wield over startups—for better or worse—is only growing.

ESG, Sustainable Finance, Green Investments—some of the biggest buzz words in finance the last years. What used to be a niche topic has now taken centre stage. Investors’ almost insatiable appetite and legislative innovation will keep it there for quite some time to come. Staying on top of local developments is not enough, reading the international trend tea leaves will be the only way for investors to answer; what next?

According to data from Broadridge, 1,929 meetings were held online using their virtual shareholder meeting platform in 2021 compared to 1,494 in 2020 and 248 in 2019.7 With the emergence of new variants of COVID-19, such as the recent Omicron variant, the trend towards increased virtual shareholder meetings could continue in 2022.

Just in time for the holiday season, and at a time when cybercriminals are generally most active, industry experts discovered a critical vulnerability in a software commonly used by companies. 

Boards function in a complex and dynamic business setting in which stakeholder expectations and demands for board attention are expanding. The challenges of operating through the COVID-19 pandemic in an uncertain environment continue to be felt as companies anticipate a new post-pandemic normal.

Companies and investors are facing crucial sustainability policy decisions in 2022 that will shape the way they operate around the world.

Coming rule changes with far-reaching implications include the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s much-discussed climate-change disclosure mandate, the potential expansion of China’s carbon-trading system and Europe’s new green investing typology. Here are five key questions for 2022.

Nutrien Ltd. has parted ways with Mayo Schmidt, its chief executive officer of only eight months, the second mystery departure of a top executive in the past year.