Corporate Governance

Hong Kong’s dual-class plans go from bad to worse

30 Oct 2017

Shares with weighted voting rights could be heading for Hong Kong’s main board, says SCMP. A prior controversial plan proposed to insulate the wider market from governance headaches by hiving such stocks off in a separate venue. This latest idea is the greater of two evils.

Activist broadcasts Japanese governance weak spot

25 Oct 2017

A UK investor wants TBS to sell corporate stakes and return cash to shareholders. Fair enough: The $3.5 bln TV network owner has little obvious use for Tokyo Electron and other holdings. Despite some broader progress, it will take more pressure to break this bad Japan Inc habit.

HP Enterprise shows breakups can fail to shine

19 Oct 2017

Activists often prod companies to hive off promising businesses from boring cash cows. HP’s split shows the distinction isn’t always clear. The “exciting” servers and networking offshoot is returning more capital as expansion stalls while growth stirs at the PC and printer outfit.

Spare GE jet is symbolic target of Flannery sweep

19 Oct 2017

Scrapping a second plane that followed former boss Immelt around, just in case, is an easy sop for shareholders. The new CEO needs them on side as he mulls possible bigger changes at the $200 bln industrial giant, such as dropping long-held earnings targets or cutting dividends.

Hadas: Time to slay the free market-myth monster

19 Oct 2017

The oft-told story of vibrant private companies as economic heroes isn’t right, and the common tale of the incompetent state is equally wrong. A new group at University College London can help create a more accurate – and more complex – narrative. The economy is a shared project.

Sexual harassment forces way into the board room

18 Oct 2017

Harvey Weinstein’s movie studio is in tatters. Mighty Amazon is wrestling with the fallout from alleged misbehavior of a top executive. They're not alone. The mistreatment of women has swiftly moved from an HR issue to a serious business risk deserving of attention from the top.

Danone’s chair-CEO blend leaves sour taste

18 Oct 2017

Boss Emmanuel Faber is taking on both roles three years after the yoghurt maker split them. Yet shareholders are increasingly unhappy with such poor corporate governance at French companies. And with an activist to contend with, the board’s decision looks complacent.

Warning signs flash at Samsung after big quarter

13 Oct 2017

The tech group's top executive unexpectedly resigned following record-smashing forecasts for operating profit. An early lead in memory chips has fuelled blistering earnings growth at Samsung despite legal woes. But as rivals circle, a widening leadership vacuum looks worrying.

Sky investors choose between profit and principles

12 Oct 2017

Chairman James Murdoch faces a backlash over concerns about his independence as Twenty-First Century Fox, which he runs, tries to buy the UK pay-TV group. Shareholders have legitimate corporate-governance grievances. But financially they’d be better off with Murdoch’s money.

Disney chief’s priorities are out of whack

9 Oct 2017

The $155 bln media firm is wrestling with major industry changes as more consumers ditch pricey cable service. Yet Bob Iger is increasingly weighing in on political issues like gun control, sparking speculation he’ll run for office. That’s fine – but not on Disney’s time.

Harvey Weinstein saga will leave filthy handprints

9 Oct 2017

Ejecting a misbehaving boss, as the U.S. film studio just did, is never simple. Corporate cultures are the offspring of their founders. While their departures can kick off a cleanup, vital skills exit with them. It's a problem enterprises like Uber and Fox are grappling with too.

Cox: P&G counting on an investor electoral college

6 Oct 2017

There's no strong reason for the insular consumer-goods titan to deny Nelson Peltz a board seat. Hedge funds will back him, but as in U.S. elections only half the retail shares may vote. That leaves Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street to play Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Buyout giants break through the ice in Japan

6 Oct 2017

Western private equity firms are no longer getting a frosty reception in Tokyo. Bain’s $18 bln deal for Toshiba’s chip unit is a special case, but rival KKR has notched up big deals with Nissan, Hitachi and Panasonic. Patience helps. So does a sense of crisis among sellers.

India will miss its top banking chief

4 Oct 2017

Arundhati Bhattacharya’s four years atop the country’s largest lender have seen bad debt rise and the shares underperform. But she has made State Bank of India the best of an ailing bunch and stood up to errant tycoons. She sets a high bar for any successor.

Wells Fargo boss makes case for his own dismissal

3 Oct 2017

At a Senate hearing Tim Sloan conceded poor oversight during the fake-accounts scandal, struggled to defend arbitration policies and was unconvincing about changing the bank’s culture. His performance should prompt incoming Chair Betsy Duke to find a leader who can turn the page.

Rivals circle Taiwan’s TSMC in new chip era

3 Oct 2017

Morris Chang, father of Taiwan's chip sector, is retiring at 86. His successors were groomed for years to take over the $189 bln behemoth Chang founded three decades ago. They'll need to work hard to defend TSMC's dominance against Samsung and rising mainland competitors.

Two rights at Uber in danger of making a wrong

2 Oct 2017

Travis Kalanick's newly appointed directors add useful expertise to a flawed board. And the effort by incumbents to limit the ousted founder's power as part of a deal to raise capital from SoftBank also makes sense. Both stand to lose if they dig in too firmly against each other.

Volkswagen can’t even get its kitchen sink right

29 Sep 2017

The German carmaker set aside another 2.5 billion euros for costs related to its emissions-cheating scandal – more than a tenth of the previous total. Two years on from Dieselgate, the final bill is still far from clear. Little wonder investors are so pessimistic.

Expect buybacks but not M&A from China’s Sina

29 Sep 2017

An activist wants the $8 bln web group to consider a sale or a merger with subsidiary Weibo. The former would never get past boss Charles Chao, and the latter is a bad idea. But Chao could compromise by expanding the board, stepping up buybacks and handing out more Weibo shares.

Italian banks become unlikely governance converts

26 Sep 2017

UniCredit will give its board authority to propose directors. Mediobanca has taken similar steps. This reflects the loss of power of foundations and investor blocks. Broader shareholder representation could make banks healthier, if boards resist the urge to feather their nests.