A weekly compilation of news from around the world of investor relations.
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Like Main Street, Wall Street Jobs Outlook Bleak
Layoffs at large investment and commercial banks have accelerated as the summer has progressed due to continued deterioration in the financial markets. Over the past 6 weeks, global investment banks have announced layoffs totaling more than 40,000 jobs. Integrity Research
European Bank Job ‘Bloodbath’ Surpasses 40,000 as UBS Cuts
“It’s a bloodbath, and I expect things to get worse before they get better,” said Jonathan Evans, chairman of executive- search firm Sammons Associates in London. “I cannot see a lot of those who have lost their jobs getting re-employed. Regardless of how good someone is, no one wants to talk about hiring. Life will be very difficult for two or three years.” Bloomberg
Boomer Retirement: Headwinds for US Equity Markets?
The model-generated path for real stock prices implied by demographic trends is quite bearish. Real stock prices follow a downward trend until 2021, cumulatively declining about 13% relative to 2010. Federal Reserve of San Francisco
Sino-Forest Trading Halted, OSC Rescinds Order
Canada’s main securities regulator suspended trading in Sino-Forest Corp. (TRE) because the company may have misrepresented revenue and exaggerated timber holdings. The Ontario Securities Commission rescinded an earlier order that five executives resign. Bloomberg
AIG Chief Unhappy With Stock Analysts
But is it the right thing to do? Are we back to 2008-09 already? The move underscores how firms feel pressured to publish rosy research reports in order to score lucrative underwriting deals and advise on mergers. StreetInsider
Hedge Funds Brace for More Short-Selling Bans
Hedge funds, wary of more intervention by European stock market regulators, are being forced to rethink investment strategies as authorities decide whether to extend short-selling bans. Reuters
Crisis-Weary Rich Held Nerve in Market Sell-Off
Some have even started to seek opportunities to pick up assets on the cheap, in bold moves that contrast sharply with the dumping of investments that characterized the last round of financial crisis in 2008. Reuters
Emerging Market Hedge Funds Hit Record $123B AUM
New capital inflows accounted for $300 million of the increase while performance-based returns added another $1.1 billion. This makes four straight quarters of growth for EM hedge funds. FinAlternatives
Santiago Bourse Sees Record IPO Year as Companies Wait for ‘Right Moment’
Chile is poised for a record year of initial public offerings as companies in industries from construction to fish farming wait for global financial turmoil to subside to sell shares, according to the Santiago exchange. Bloomberg
S&P’s Indexes Perform Well vs. Active Funds, Scorecard Shows
Standard & Poor’s Indices Versus Active funds scorecard showed S&P’s large-cap, midcap and small-cap indexes posting gains for the three-year period ended June 30, that outpaced 64%, 75% and 63% of actively managed funds, respectively, in those market segments, on an equal-weighted basis. Pensions & Investments
In Latest Deals, Big Roles for Boutique Investment Banks
Two big deals last week — Google’s $12.5 billion takeover bid for Motorola Mobility and Hewlett-Packard’s $11.7 billion purchase of Autonomy — underscored the growing influence of boutique investment banks. DealBook
Investors Urge the SEC to Appeal Proxy Access Decision
The Council of Institutional Investors (CII), which represents public, labor, and corporate pension funds, has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to seek additional judicial reconsideration of the federal appeals court decision that struck down the SEC’s proxy access rule. ISS
Say-on-Pay Frequency: And the Winner Is…
By now, about two-thirds of companies have announced their say-on-pay vote frequency going forward. (Remember that companies have 150 calendar days after the annual meeting to announce their say-on- frequency decision.) Our analysis of the say-on-frequency decisions reveals the following: Towers Watson
Shareholder Activists Make Gains
One area seeing significant change is takeover defenses. In 2002, more than half of companies had “poison pills” to thwart potential takeovers; that compares to 16% today. Compliance Week
Surge in UK Appointments of Female Board Members
According to analysis conducted by the Observer, Britain’s biggest companies have doubled the number of women they are recruiting to their boards in the past six months. The Guardian
CFO Role Expands As Sustainability Resolutions Gain Ground
Social and environmental resolutions comprised 40% of all shareholder proposals in 2011, according to a recent Ernst & Young report, up from 30% in 2010. Average voting support for these proposals was also up from 10% in 2005 to 21% in 2011. Accounting Today
The Negative Side of Share Buybacks
If a company can afford to part with cash, investors should prefer dividends to buybacks. New York Times
How to Deal With the Ongoing Stock Market Turmoil from a Financial Communications Perspective?
To achieve a fair market valuation over time is a long term commitment, which requires a sustained and coherent IR effort, where quick fixes are seldom or never available. Box IR
Hewlett-Packard and the M&A Scoop
The M&A scoop which kicked off the news cycle looks like an attempt by HP to manage media coverage and to distract attention from its dreadful earnings guidance. Columbia Journalism Review
FINRA Sends Clearer Message on Social Media
Broker-dealers don’t have to track every message sent through social media – only ones that relate to business purposes. And unscripted interactions? They can be reported after they occur. Securities Technology Monitor
Merrill Lynch Opens Up On LinkedIn
The wealth management unit of Merrill, the principal retail brokerage unit of Bank of America Corp, will open LinkedIn to its army of more than 16,200 brokers by October, expanding a pilot program that began in the spring, a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. Times of India
Facebook Overhauls Privacy Settings
Facebook is once again overhauling its privacy settings in an effort to give users more control over what they share, and with who, on the world’s largest social network. Financial Post
How to Effectively Manage Critics, Trolls and Spammers on Facebook Pages
As your Page grows in popularity and starts to attract hundreds and thousands of Likes it will also begin to see unwelcome attention from the less-savory members of larger online communities – critics, trolls and spammers. Inside Facebook
Broadridge Introduces Mobile ProxyVote Platform to Canada
Proxy voting moves to the next generation of advanced technology with today’s announcement by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) that its ProxyVote.com platform will now be available on mobile data devices such as smart phones and tablets for Canadian shareholders. Finextra
Changing Demographics of Tablet and eReader Owners in the US
Back in Q3 2010, 62% of tablet owners were under the age of 34 and only 10% were over the age of 55. By Q2 2011, only 46% of tablet owners were under the age of 34 and the percentage of those over 55 had increased to 19%. Nielsen
Do 90% of People Not Use CTRL+F?
Mozilla has TestPilot studies with open data, and we can see if Firefox users behave similarly. Mozilla
Pam Agnew, ABC is a director of IR Web Reporting International Inc. and an award-winning communicator. She has more than 20 years of corporate and agency experience in investor, crisis, corporate, media, stakeholder and sustainability communications on four continents for leading global companies as well as stock exchanges, securities regulators and large institutional investors.
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