Nine leading US pension funds have announced that they will be disclosing their voting intentions for shareholder meetings on a new web portal, ProxyDemocracy.  AFSCME Employees Pension Plan, CalPERS, CalSTRS, Calvert Investments, Christian Brothers Investment Services, Domini Social Investments, the Florida State Board of Administration, Green Century and Trillium Asset Management are making their individual proxy […]

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A new study prepared by Manifest’s US partner, PROXY Governance with sponsorship by the IRRC Institute, “Effectiveness of Hybrid Boards,” analyzes 120 “hybrid boards” formed from 2005 through 2008 to evaluate their effectiveness in two areas: changes in business strategy and corporate governance structures; and changes in shareholder value measured both absolutely and relative to […]

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Reuters: Lloyds directors who did HBOS deal face scrutiny More >> May 27, 2009 The Scotsman: Lloyds’ Kane can’t bank on support More >> May 28, 2009 The Herald: Lloyds directors involved in HBOS deal face scrutiny More >> May 28, 2009 Money Marketing: Lloyds chiefs set for tough re-election More >> May 28, 2009

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The quest for a single set of global governance standards is misguided and investors should stop using global governance standards based on US policy approaches. That’s the conclusion of Lucian Bebchuk and Assaf Hamdani in their latest paper: “The Elusive Quest for Global Governance Standards”. The key issue at the heart of what many will see […]

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The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change has called for urgent action to boost the effectiveness of carbon markets and the mitigation of climate change risk in developing countries in their recent report ‘Toward an Effective Global Carbon Market’. The European group, representing over €4tr, identifies the need for strong pricing signals to further encourage […]

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United Kingdom The Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform has published a revised draft of the regulations to implement the Shareholder Rights Directive. Please send any final comments on the revised draft regulations to Kate Gillies (kate.gillies@berr.gsi.gov.uk) by Friday 29 May. Ireland The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has published the Draft Shareholders Rights […]

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The advisory vote on the remuneration report at AGM of OZ Minerals on 11 June is expected to see a very significant protest vote following the AU$10m severance payment received by former Oxiana CEO, Owen Hegarty, during the year. The payment was made despite a majority of proxies lodged being voted against a resolution to […]

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From the self-styled “Wall Street Tabloid” DealBreaker ….in the face of mounting losses and some very poor risk management very few corporate heads have actually been tossed by shareholders. Government, of course, has been more “effective” in this regard. Still, of the vanishingly small pool of shareholder executed CEO defenestrations CEO pay has played a […]

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FTSE 100 bosses are paying themselves “footballers’ salaries” out of proportion with the rest of the market according to a report from pay consultants MM&K and governance group Manifest. The increase in total pay for chief executives and senior directors of the UK’s largest companies is “on a curve to infinity” as management fight to […]

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An oil giant’s shareholders flex their muscles MOST firms’ annual general meetings (AGMs) owe more to North Korea than ancient Greece. By long-standing tradition, bosses make platitudinous speeches, listen to lone dissidents with the air of psychiatric nurses towards patients and wait for their own proposals to be rubber-stamped by the proxy votes of obedient […]

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