The momentum toward universal mandatory reporting and disclosure on climate risk and sustainability has gained additional strength with recent developments at the international, domestic and state levels. These steps follow years of calls from investors for standardized and comparable climate-related disclosures. International. In June, the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors issued a statement…
Tag: international corporate governance
Firms Scrub Dirty Bonds Off Books to Boost ESG Credentials – Bloomberg
A new trend is emerging in the world of ESG as companies turn their attention to cleaning up old debt. They’re either buying back conventional notes, which could finance just about anything, or transforming old securities to green. Italian utility company Enel SpA is leading the charge in buybacks with the largest one to date:…
Australia: CEOs take record hit on bonuses
Bonuses of blue-chip company bosses took the biggest hit on record last year, with nearly a third of ASX 100 CEOs receiving no annual boost to their base salary. Some 31 ASX 100 chiefs received no annual bonus in 2020, double the number from the year before. Among them were those running businesses savaged by…
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son grilled by investors over governance lapses | Financial Times
Masayoshi Son has told shareholders that SoftBank will not prioritise short-term trading gains as the company behind the world’s most aggressive technology fund was grilled over governance failures after the collapses of Greensill and Katerra. At an annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, the 63-year-old billionaire founder defended the Japanese conglomerate’s governance structure, saying the board…
Toshiba In Chaos After Bid to Foil Activist Shareholders – The New York Times
Last year, when a little-known investment firm called for some new blood on the board of the faded Japanese industrial giant Toshiba, the company’s leadership was less than receptive. But rather than taking its case to its shareholders, Toshiba tried to foil the problem investors by making a secret request to Japan’s powerful trade ministry:…
Toshiba scandal is a moment to stand up and be counted
Brooke Masters writes in the Financial Times about the failures of Toshiba’s corporate governance: Toshiba has had three financial scandals in the past six years, and the government has intervened at least twice to help management fend off investor challenges. If that’s a transformed corporate culture, what was the old one like? Investors have another…
Rio Tinto hit by huge protest vote on executive pay over Juukan destruction – ABC News
Rio Tinto investors have given the miner a slap in the face at the company’s annual general meeting in Perth by voting against big bonuses for top executives to protest the destruction of sacred Aboriginal caves at the Juukan Gorge. Key points: 60 per cent of Rio Tinto investors vote against executive pay plans after destruction of…
UK To Overhaul Audit, Address “Real Life Consequences” Of Failures In Audit And Corporate Governance — Dina Medland
The U.K. government is joining up the dots on the need for trust to build a strong commercial ecosystem for business. It intends to broaden the remit of audit, introduce new reporting obligations on businesses, and break the dominance of the Big Four accounting firms by requiring the use of smaller “challenger” firms by large…
Happy SFDR reporting day! The EU Action Plan isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got, and we must back it vigorously
Responsible Investor’s Hugh Wheelan writes: [T]he tipping points for the huge ESG shift we are witnessing are the regulatory drivers of The EU Green Deal and Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth. They are two blockbuster regional policy drivers that will have global ‘translation effects’ for all companies and investors; public or private, amplified rapidly…
Danone board ousts ESG Advocate Emmanuel Faber as chief and chairman | Financial Times
Danone’s board of directors has decided to replace Emmanuel Faber as chief executive and chairman, bowing to pressure from activist investors and blowing up a two-week-old compromise designed to have him remain as chairman….Activist investors attacked Danone for what they cast as its chronic underperformance compared with larger rival Nestlé, and publicly called for Faber’s…
