Partner for Financial Stability has released its latest finding on reporting quality in Central and Eastern Europe, noting a significant increase in the number of CEE blue chip companies issuing stand-alone English-language environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports. The number of companies offering an English report has now reach 41 compared with 28 companies in September 2008. In […]

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TUI’s Hanover AGM was finally closed by the chairman at  21:00 on 13 May having started at noon.  Monteray Enterprises, TUI’s largest shareholder, failed in its efforts to remove two members of Supervisory Board; appoint two representatives of Monteray to the Supervisory Board; and to request two ‘Special Audits’. According to the official results, turnout at the meeting […]

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Not so very long ago the AGM season passed the greater world largely unnoticed. Then in 1995 came the Cedric the pig, the mixed metaphor’d ‘fat cat with his snout in the trough’. We have then seen Hugh and his followers with their chickens at Tesco and this year, Fortis shareholders arming themselves with coins, […]

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European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has gone public with his concerns about role and structure of the International Accounting Standards Board. In his usual direct way McCreevy has pointed out that: “Accounting is now far too important to be left solely to accountants!” Speaking at a recent European Commission’s conference, Financial Reporting in a Changing World,  […]

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If  Democratic New York Senator Charles ‘Chuck’ E Schumer has his way, shareholders of US-quoted companies can expect to see their ownership rights significantly enhanced. Schumer’s move was flagged in late April but reports are coming in that the Bill will be presented this week. Schumer’s Shareholder Bill of Rights Act of 2009 has a very clearly stated goal: […]

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Half of Europe’s biggest banks have changed their chief executive or chairman in the past 12 months, leaving question marks over their leadership experience just as the first signs emerge of an economic recovery. Ten of Europe’s 20 largest banks by market capitalization or scale of investment banking operations have appointed new heads during the […]

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged INTECH Investment Management LLC, a Florida based investment advisor with violating its proxy rules after it was found that it failed to describe its voting policies and procedures  as well as failing to manage and disclose a major conflict of interest. After receiving complaints from some of the manager’s union-affiliated clients about its  pro-management proxy […]

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The Institute of Directors in South Africa has published drafts of the King III Report and King III Code on Corporate Governance. Shareholders are being offered a chance for a say on pay but it won’t be mandatory. The draft code states that shareholders “should approve the company’s remuneration policy”, while noting that the Board is […]

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Manifest’s request for global shareholders to have a “Say on Pay” at Irish companies has its first success; DCC Group plc has confirmed that they will be allowing a shareholder vote on the directors remuneration report at this summer’s AGM. It is understood that this will be proposed as a management-sponsored resolution which is greatly […]

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Closing submissions have been made in the case taken by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (‘ASIC’) against Fortescue Metals Group for misleading and deceptive conduct. The case centres on a series of announcements FMG made to the market between 23 August 2004 and 9 November 2004 concerning certain framework agreements with three major state […]

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