Resource Center

A recent review commissioned by HM Treasury recommends a slew of measures aimed at boosting the attractiveness of the post-Brexit London Stock Exchange as an IPO destination. Under the recommendations, the LSE premium listing segment would allow dual class share structures with a maximum 20:1 voting rights differential for up to five years post-IPO.

A Delaware court has invalidated a poison pill that had been adopted by U.S. energy firm The Williams Companies in March 2020. While poison pills have been traditionally conceived of as takeover protections, Williams’ pill is meant to deter activist campaigns by imposing substantial dilution on any shareholder acquiring a specified stake without prior board approval.

Petrobras will hold an EGM to vote on a proposal by the Brazilian federal government, which controls 50.5% of voting rights, to remove CEO Roberto Castello Branco from the board and replace him in this capacity with former military general Joaquim Silva e Luna.

The Carlyle Group has secured a USD 4.1 billion credit line that it describes as “the largest ESG-linked private equity credit facility in the US…and the first to focus exclusively on advancing board diversity.” The facility’s price of debt will be dependent on the firm achieving its goal of 30% board diversity across its portfolio companies within two years of ownership.

Regulatory inquiry calls out governance failures at Crown Resorts Four Crown Resorts directors, including the CEO, have resigned after a report commissioned by New South Wales (“NSW”) authorities found “serious corporate failures” at the firm and deemed it unsuitable to hold a license for its Barangaroo casino.

Investors push for leadership and strategy shift at Exxon More than 135 investors, with USD 2.2 trillion in assets, have teamed up to push Exxon to make leadership changes and to increase its focus on clean energy transition. The investors, acting under the “Coalition United for a Responsible Exxon” banner, expressed concern over the company’s current strategy of basing its upstream investments on an assumption of future price and demand increases for oil and gas.

Apollo Global Management to overhaul corporate governance On January 25, US private equity firm Apollo Global Management announced far-reaching changes to its corporate governance. The firm will separate the Chairman and CEO roles held by co-founder Leon Black, who will stay on as Chairman while co-founder Marc Rowan takes over as CEO.

Home Depot and Omnicom Group are both facing shareholder resolutions calling for an independent third-party investigation into the link between their social media advertising and “violations of civil or human rights.”

Starting this year, Apple will introduce an ESG modifier to its short-term incentive (STI) plan that may increase or decrease executives’ annual bonuses by up to 10%. The performance measures and the threshold, target, and maximum opportunity levels under the STI will remain unchanged.

Following confusion, NYSE delists three Chinese companies The New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) has announced the January 11 delisting of the American depositary receipts (“ADRs”) of three Chinese telecommunications companies. The concerned companies are China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom Hong Kong, all controlled by the Chinese state and also listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.