A shareholder society appears to have no place in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (CCMC) severely flawed paper on shareholder proposal reform. The paper is intended to contain a “set of recommendations for the SEC on fixing the broken Rule 14a-8 system in order to protect investors and make the public company […]
The Australian Government is set to repeal an existing provision in the Corporations Act that allows 100 shareholders the flexibility to require a company to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to consider a resolution outside of the annual meeting process. Business lobbyists including the Business Council of Australia (BCA) and the Australia Institute of […]
We last explored the topic of gender diversity on boards, in particular the underrepresentation of women on them, late in 2012, but much has happened globally on the subject since then. More companies have adopted regulation on the issue that range from “comply-or-explain” rules to quotas for the percentage of women on boards. A 2014 Grant Thornton […]
KOLESNIKOFF Governance touts itself as “the only professional provider of independent proxy voting and governance research on ASX listed companies and capital markets which is accessible by all investors.” According to their website: We fill the void in professional corporate governance and proxy voting research available to Australia’s retail, self-funded and self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) investors, who have previously […]
Maybe they’re showing us the way down under. A joint initiative of the Victorian Government and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (Company Directors) offers scholarships to women on the boards of Not for Profit organizations that receive State Government funding to undertake corporate governance training provided by Company Directors. (more…)
BNN’s The Street is delivering an in-depth look at the growing number of shareholder uprisings. Activist investors are speaking out out at CP Rail, Yahoo, Astral Media and elsewhere. And, they’re not just taking on management. They’re winning their battles too. Click here for more. (more…)
It is great to see Manifest, the proxy voting agency, raising the issue of management voting proxy items left blank by shareowners. In the majority of markets with developed shareholder voting procedures, for each proposal, the shareholder has three choices; to vote for, against or abstain. Alternatively, shareholders can actively elect for the chairman to […]
Shareholders of Australian public companies have been having their say on pay by law since 2005. The Australian Parliament is currently considering amendments to its say on pay rules that are aimed at increasing the impact on companies of significant shareholder votes against. The ‘two-strikes’ test is a key proposed change included in the Corporations […]