From Sidley Austin: As the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfold in the US in early March, it quickly became clear that the crisis would act as a “poison pill” that would sharply reduce shareholder activism in the spring. Initially, many activists were preoccupied with their own survival and/ or attracting new capital rather than launching…
Category: activism
Billionaire Chris Hohn forces first annual investor vote on climate policy | Financial Times
Spanish airports operator Aena is set to become the first company in the world to give shareholders an annual vote on its effort to tackle climate change, bowing to pressure from billionaire UK hedge fund manager Chris Hohn. Sir Christopher’s TCI Fund Management, one of Aena’s largest independent shareholders, has been at loggerheads with the…
Boohoo Group PLC vows to rectify failings but margins remain a question
Boohoo Group PLC (LON:BOO) has vowed to address its corporate governance responsibilities after an independent review confirmed poor working conditions and low rates of pay in its supply chain. The report found that Its senior directors “knew for a fact that there were very serious issues about the treatment of factory workers in Leicester and…
Activist Trian Fund Management Takes Stake in Comcast – WSJ
Tough when the insiders have controlling shares, but then Trian is pretty savvy. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Trian Fund Management LP, a hedge fund known for pushing big companies to make operational and other changes, has launched an activist campaign against Comcast Corp. in a bet that the cable-TV and…
Rio Tinto Executives Step Down After Shareholder Revolt over Sacred Australian Sites – The New York Times
In May, the minerals giant Rio Tinto decided to blow up the caves [containing sacred Aboriginal artifacts] to get at the riches below. But on Friday, it became clear that Australia’s most powerful export industry had met a force it could not bulldoze: the global movement for racial justice. The company announced that its chief…
Climate risk & board conflicts at Standard Bank – Just Share
n 8 June 2020, 14 climate justice NGOs led by Just Share wrote to asset managers with shares in Standard Bank Group Limited (Standard Bank), calling on them to vote against the election of five climate-conflicted directors at the bank’s AGM on 26 June. Seven of Standard Bank’s 18 board members have close ties to…
EA Put On Blast By Investor Group Over Huge Payments To Top Executives – GameSpot
Gaming giant Electronic Arts has been put on blast by one of its investors for the lucrative pay packages that the publisher gives to some of its highest-ranking executives. Dieter Waizenegger, the director of The CtW Investment Group, said in a notice that EA has “gone too far in terms of executive pay,” and is…
Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative | The Church of England
The Church of England Pensions Board and the Council on Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds convened a global tailings summit to review the progress of the industry 9 months after the disaster at Brumadinho. This summit included: Release of Phase 1 of a new project: the New Global Independent Tailings Database, including initial…
Preparing for Post-Pandemic Corporate Activism
Pre-pandemic, activists found new acceptance among institutional investors as they focused on unlocking value, creating efficiencies, and operating in a global environment with a focus on corporate and social responsibility governance issues. In what might be seen as a direct response to this trend, in August 2019, a group of 181 chief executives signed a…
JPMorgan Chase removes Climate Change Denier and Former Oil Company CEO from independent director role | Financial Times
JPMorgan Chase has promised to announce a new lead independent director by the end of September, bringing an end to the 19-year tenure of former ExxonMobil chief Lee Raymond and satisfying demands for change led by New York City’s comptroller and climate groups. America’s biggest bank revealed the timetable for appointing Mr Raymond’s successor in documents filed ahead of its May 19…
