Governance in Brief – April 27, 2023
ValueAct Capital pushes to oust Seven & i Holdings President Activist investor ValueAct Capital has submitted a shareholder proposal to remove four of the 14 directors of Japan’s Seven & i Holdings Co, including company President Ryuichi Isaka. The investor, which holds a 4.4% stake in the Japanese convenience store operator, has nominated four new independent directors to the board. ValueAct alleged that Isaka acted in bad faith and was responsible for a “flawed” corporate strategy. The investor has been calling on the Japanese company to improve its valuation and “pursue bold, structural reform.”
Why Impact Matters: Seven Essential Considerations for Investors
Today’s investors are facing increased scrutiny from stakeholders for greenwashing risk. ESG-related disclosure regulations are quickly advancing and more customers are seeking impact-focused products. This market environment demands heightened transparency and credibility, and investors need to know how Impact can help them rise to these challenges and meet their diverse sustainability goals.
Will SVB’s Failure Create Headwinds in Clean Technology?
SVB's failure could create a domino effect in the IT and banking sectors, whereby the default of one company would trigger the default of another one across sectors, and so on. In this article, we explore that possibility for the cleantech sector.
Governance in Brief – April 20, 2023
Softbank liquidates most of its Alibaba stake Softbank has reportedly sold around USD 7.2 billion worth of Alibaba shares this year via prepaid forward contracts, causing its stake to drop from almost 15% to 3.8% and Alibaba’s share price to falter. Softbank has gradually decreased its stake, which as recently as three years ago was valued at USD 100 billion and represented 25% of Alibaba’s share capital.
A New Tool at the Table: Understanding Low Carbon Transition Risk By Industry and How Companies Are Managing It
Discover how leading companies are managing their low carbon transition risks. Using data from the Low Carbon Transition Ratings, we identify the industries with a large portion of the companies with strong management of transition issues and examine the factors contributing to their strong management scores.
Governance in Brief – April 13, 2023
Switzerland cracks down on Credit Suisse bonuses The Swiss government has ordered Credit Suisse to eliminate or reduce all outstanding variable compensation for the top three layers of bank management, following the lender's collapse and unexpected takeover by rival UBS. The cutbacks will affect around 1,000 employees, resulting in about CHF 50 to CHF 60 million less in bonus payouts.
Governance in Brief – April 6, 2023
Alibaba to cleave off business units Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba has announced plans to split its operations into six separate business groups. The units are Cloud Intelligence Group, Taobao Tmall Commerce Group, Local Services Group, Cainiao Smart Logistics Group, Global Digital Commerce Group and Digital Media and Entertainment Group.
Governance in Brief – March 23, 2023
SVB Financial Group sued after the collapse of Silicon Valley bank unit SVB Financial Group, the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, and two of its top executives, CEO Greg Becker and CFO Daniel Beck, are being sued by shareholders following the bank’s collapse. The lawsuit, filed by retail shareholder Chandra Vanipenta on behalf of a group of shareholders, accuses the bank and its two top executives of filing false and misleading financial reports.
Governance in Brief – March 16, 2023
Canada introduces climate reporting framework Canadian regulators have issued new guidance for the country's banks and insurance companies to better manage climate-related risks. The framework, which requires disclosure on governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics related to financial institutions’ greenhouse-gas emissions, was first drafted in 2022.
EU's Iterative Approach to Sustainable Finance Regulations Isn't Perfect, But It's a Good Start
The EU Action Plan for Sustainable Finance has kept the European investment market busy over the past year. In this blog post, we highlight the merits that we see in the EU regulatory package. While not perfect, the regulation is a good start.
Governance in Brief – March 9, 2023
The U.S. Congress has passed a resolution repealing a Department of Labor (“DOL”) rule empowering retirement plan managers to consider climate change and ESG factors in their investment decisions. The rule, introduced by the Biden administration, falls under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), a federal law which sets protection standards for participants in private pension plans. Biden’s ruling entered into force in January this year, overturning prior Trump-era DOL rules that limited pension fund managers to restrict their investment strategies to “pecuniary factors.”
Governance in Brief – March 2, 2023
Indian regulator proposes enhancement to ESG disclosure rules India’s securities and market regulator SEBI has released a new ESG disclosure framework for public consultation. The proposed regulations impact India’s 1,000 largest companies by market capitalization, ESG funds and ESG ratings providers. For the largest companies, the regulator proposes areas of assurance of ESG disclosures and reporting and assurance of ESG footprint of the supply chain. The proposals expand on the 2021 Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (“BRSR”) guidelines and propose mandatory assurance of certain KPIs under ESG disclosure. The KPIs contain intensity ratios such as GHG emissions, water consumption, and waste generation. For supply chain, SEBI will introduce a comply-or-explain approach for the top 250 companies starting in 2024, and assurance beginning in 2025. For ESG funds, SEBI proposes that at least 65% of AUM be invested in companies reporting on comprehensive BRSR and provide assurance on BRSR core disclosures. Under the proposed rules, ESG rating providers should also provide a “core ESG rating” based on assured information in addition to their own products.
Governance in Brief – February 23, 2023
SEC considers changes to climate disclosure rules The U.S. SEC is reportedly considering easing a set of proposed rules, released in March 2022, which would have required public companies to make disclosures about their greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”), climate-related financial metrics, and climate-related risks.