Recent articles

NIRI proposes guidance on company-sponsored research

Jan 24, 2020

Attitudes to company-sponsored research are softening, according to experts, as NIRI releases provisional guidance to its members about what they should consider when commissioning third-party research. NIRI unveiled its proposed guidelines to members last week, and is accepting comments on the guidelines until mid-February. Speaking to IR Magazine, NIRI president and CEO Gary LaBranche explains that the institute’s leadership has considered offering guid...

Reporting

GM scores back-to-back proxy statement awards

Jan 24, 2020

Ben Ashwell

GM scores back-to-back proxy statement awards

GM won the best proxy statement (large cap) category for the second consecutive year at the 2019 awards. Its entry showed clear progression from the previous year’s award-winning proxy statement, and both publications emphasize the growing importance of communicating a cohesive theme through the proxy statement. In 2017 GM faced a proxy contest with Greenlight Capital in which the investor questioned the company’s capital allocation and the makeup of the board. ...

Regulation

Industry gets first insight into SEC’s 14a-8 no-action shift

Jan 24, 2020

Ben Maiden

Industry gets first insight into SEC’s 14a-8 no-action shift

Governance professionals at companies, law firms and investors are beginning to find out how the SEC will apply its revised approach to handling companies’ requests to exclude shareholder proposals from their AGMs – specifically, where the agency declines to give a written explanation of its decision. The division of corporation finance’s staff on September 6 issued a ...

Shareholder targeting & ID

The week in investor relations: Climate change, sustainable funds and ‘diverse’ IPOs

Jan 24, 2020

Tim Human

The week in investor relations: Climate change, sustainable funds and ‘diverse’ IPOs

– Questions are being asked over the voting record of Australian asset managers on climate change issues, reported the Financial Times (paywall). Data provided to the FT by Proxy Insight showed that some major investors had not supported any climate change resolutions during the 2018-2019 proxy season. The deadly wildfires during Australia’s 2019-2020 summer have raised the ...

ESG

Coalition calls for year of investor action on antimicrobial resistance

Jan 23, 2020

Tim Human

Coalition calls for year of investor action on antimicrobial resistance

A variety of organizations, including an investor network and the UK government’s health department, have called for investors to address the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR): superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics. The coalition wants to see a year of action by investors to tackle AMR. Resistance to drugs occurs naturally but is accelerated by practices such as unnecessary prescription of antibiotics to humans and the mass medicat...

Buy side

Opinion: How companies should interpret Larry Fink’s letter

Jan 22, 2020

Mike Wallace

Opinion: How companies should interpret Larry Fink’s letter

Rather than getting caught up in a debate over fiduciary duty or whether or not sustainability or ESG performance is material, let’s just cut to the chase on the latest BlackRock letter. It’s still a company’s choice whether to disclose ESG information. If your company is selling a product or a service, you are obviously responding to customer demands and interests. So what about customers buying your stock? If they are increasingly asking for ESG information, how do...

Careers

Ingredion appoints new vice president of IR

Jan 22, 2020

Ben Ashwell

Ingredion appoints new vice president of IR

Ingredion has appointed Tiffany Willis as its new vice president of investor relations and chief communications officer, effective immediately. In her new role, Willis reports into James Gray, the company’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. She is now responsible for the company’s relationships with its investors and analysts, as well as managing domestic and international media relationships and directing corporate crisis communications....

Buy side

Investor confidence rises ahead of US earnings season

Jan 21, 2020

Tim Human

Investor confidence rises ahead of US earnings season

Investors are feeling a renewed sense of bullishness as we head into US earnings season, according to new research. The proportion of investors who call themselves ‘bullish’ or ‘neutral to bullish’ has risen to 52 percent this quarter, up from 37 percent three months ago, reports Inside The Buy-side, a quarterly study conducted by Corbin Advisors. Expectations for US GDP figures have also improved: 60 percent say they expect growth of 2.5 percent fo...

Careers

HNI brings in sell-sider Matthew McCall as vice president of IR

Jan 21, 2020

Tim Human

HNI brings in sell-sider Matthew McCall as vice president of IR

HNI Corporation, the US-based manufacturer of office furniture and hearth products, has brought in experienced sell-sider Matthew McCall as its new vice president of investor relations and corporate development. McCall's sell-side career stretches back over the last 20 years. Most recently, he was managing director and senior equity research analyst at Seagate Global Holdings, where he covered building products and furnishings. Prior to that, he spent nea...

Corporate access

Four things we learned at the IR Magazine Forum – Greater China 2019

Jan 17, 2020

Laurie Havelock

Four things we learned at the IR Magazine Forum – Greater China 2019

Coming to Hong Kong in December for the IR Magazine Forum – Greater China 2019 proved interesting. The city was in the middle of several months’ worth of civil protests but its capital markets have continued unimpeded since. The attitude of the 100-plus IROs who gathered that morning to discuss best practices and to network was one of business as usual, however. Recent macroeconomic pressures in the region, and a projected growth slowdown in mainland China, mean...

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