A group of shareholders at Aimia Inc. are calling for a redo of last month’s annual general meeting, which they say was “plagued with irregularities” and “outrageous conduct.” The group, dubbed Aimia Shareholders for Accountability, said the chairman refused to conduct votes or take questions and allowed security guards to intimidate shareholders who attempted to…
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Financial Services Committee Hearing on Sustainability and Competitiveness
The Congressional Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets held a hearing on”Building a Sustainable and Competitive Economy: An Examination of Proposals to Improve Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosures.” Note at 55:45 Representative Vargas asks former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins if he believes climate change is real and Atkins dissembles, despite the fact that…
Report: Shareholder Activism Jan-June 2019
Activist Insight on Shareholder Activism and Engagement in the first half of 2019: The first six months of 2019 have provided plenty of interesting activist activity in what seems like a longer proxy season than last year’s. Late-season fights at HomeStreet and EQT (this month’s campaign in focus) have kept us on our toes, as…
Japan: One Step Forward on Corporate Governance But More Steps Ahead
The introduction of both a Stewardship Code in 2014 and a Corporate Governance Code a year later in Japan has pushed investors to focus more on the governance standards of the companies they’re invested in and forced companies to make changes – particularly when it comes to appointing independent directors to the board. But accusations…
Can Blue Bonds Save the Oceans?
Can we financially engineer our way out of climate change and polluted oceans? Maybe not, but financial innovation is emerging as a popular tool to help in the race to protect the planet. Last year, the market for “green bonds,” a decade-old asset class that funds environmentally friendly projects, reached a record $163.7 billion, up…
WSJ: Giant Investors Are Coming After One of Wall Street’s Cash Cows
Liz Hoffman and Geoffrey Rogow write about direct contact between the largest investors and their portfolio companies in the Wall Street Journal. While it applies to the functions related to research and deals usually undertaken by financial intermediaries, it is likely to have an impact on governance and ESG-related engagement as well. Wall Street’s role…
Abortion Likely to Spark Shareholder Activism
The recent adoption of unprecedented restrictions on abortions in states including Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, and Alabama is a legal and political controversy that is likely to become a corporate governance controversy as well. Judd Legum at Popular Information dug through the disclosure of corporate political contributions and revealed that these corporations supported politicians who sponsored…
Private Green Investments Now Reach $10.387 Trillion
Ethical Markets Media Certified B. corporation released its annual Green Transition Scoreboard for 2019-2020, tracking private green investments since 2009, now a cumulative $10.387 trillion. New capital continues expanding Earth-saving clean energy, green construction, corporate R& D and widening the healthier global plant-protein food sector. … ‘TRANSITIONING TO SCIENCE-BASED INVESTING: 2019-2020” updates our continual research…
Dr Raj Thamotheram Calls on Investors to Take the Lead on Climate Change
Dr Raj Thamotheram compares the essential urgency of investor engagement on climate change to the first major social movement, the campaign to abolish slavery. And he says the crucial moment this proxy season is the ExxonMobil annual meeting. So why is ExxonMobil set to be the litmus test for climate aware investors in 2019? ●…
