IR Magazine Nordic Awards announced
DENMARK’S Danske Bank this week swept the IR Magazine Nordic Awards in Copenhagen — winning three of the top regional titles, including the Grand prix for best overall investor relations and best use of technology. The bank’s head of investor relations Martin Gottlob was voted the Nordic Region’s best investor relations officer by the 180 [...]
US firms love e-proxy savings, but at what cost?
DESPITE the risk that they might be reaping short-term gains while laying the foundation for long-term pain, 566 US companies used notice-only e-proxy mailings for their shareholder meetings by the end of April. According to figures compiled by Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc., companies have saved about $132 million through lower print and mailing costs. Unfortunately, [...]
History made in Japan
WE “TRAVEL” to Japan regularly as part of our research of how companies around the world are using the web to communicate with their investors. When we first started going there, standards of online IR communication were exceptionally poor. Except for a couple of firms like NTT DoCoMo and Sony, the country’s blue chips as [...]
6 tips for a better E-proxy campaign
I HAVE really enjoyed reading the first issue of InvestorRelationships.com, the new online publication for investor relations, shareholder services, and corporate governance professionals that launched last week. As I have already mentioned, the publication — which is free for this year — is edited by former SEC attorney Broc Romanek, who also is also editor [...]
An analogy that's hard to miss
WHERE can you legally stuff the ballot boxes with votes from people who do not actually cast ballots? Where can you cling to your position by having those votes push you to a majority? Why, in America, of course. This happens in elections of corporate directors under something called broker non-votes, which the New York [...]
Is there a disclosure issue here?
TAKE a look at these news releases put out this week by two New York Stock Exchange-listed companies about awards they’ve received for their investor relations websites and their disclosure practices. The first is from Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligents SA, the airline firm listed on the NYSE under the symbol GOL. SAO PAULO, Brazil, April [...]
Evelyn Davis complains about e-proxy
CORPORATE governance activist Evelyn Y. Davis, well-known for berating CEOs at annual meetings across the US, has complained about the SEC’s new default electronic delivery process for annual meeting materials. On CNBC’s Power Lunch show, the 78-year-old Davis told host Bill Griffeth that the SEC’s process of requiring shareholders to request paper materials from companies [...]
The emerging engagement expectation
AS INTERNET users, particularly younger generations, spend more time online, the Web has become a vital means for them to interact with one another. This has led to a surge in the popularity of so-called social media or engagement media –- websites and Internet-based technologies that enable users to converse, contribute, create and share online [...]
Home Depot CEO: Nardelli victim of "societal shift"
HOME Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD), the home improvement giant that caused an uproar over its heavy-handed tactics at last year’s annual meeting, held its 2007 annual meeting yesterday and said sorry. And different from last year when none made an appearance, all of the directors except one showed up. The meeting lasted a couple of [...]
People in Glass Lewis houses
OH dear! A bit of mess over at Glass Lewis & Co., the proxy advisory firm acquired in December by China-based Xinhua Finance Media. Two senior executives at the corporate governance firm — former SEC chief accountant Lynn E. Turner and former Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Weil — have quit, apparently in protest over [...]
U.S. say-on-pay support grows
INSTITUTIONAL Shareholder Services has posted their U.S. mid-season proxy season review of preliminary voting results on hot-button shareholder proposals — and it finds that there’s still a big appetite for change. The most-watched issue this season is say-on-pay, resolutions requesting companies to put their compensation practices up to a non-binding annual shareholder referendum. ISS is [...]
Fidelity Investments blinks
FIDELITY Investments, the world’s largest mutual fund company, has sold most of its stake in Asian energy giant PetroChina after coming under fire from activists. The move is significant because it demonstrates the mutual fund industry’s sensitivity to public campaigns that could taint their brands. Mutual fund companies have historically been the least active in [...]
US companies should look Down Under
AUSTRALIA, according to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), has one of the highest rates of individual share ownership in the world. It’s the best example we have of an equity ownership culture — something many U.S. policy makers and politicians wish America would become. In America, rates of direct share ownership among the U.S. population [...]
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