After the various scandals and unethical behavior of some players in the financial services and proxy industry, this article describes the importance of ethics and having and applying a code of business conduct. Sodali is highlighted as being an exception in the industry of having a Code of Business Conduct and the article stresses the importance of it.
Go to the article’s link Finanza e etica: Code of Business Conduct
John Wilcox is quoted in this article by Peter Firestein, which provides useful recommendations to companies and boards of directors preparing to engage with shareholders.
Go to the article’s link
This article examines the activity in the Greek market surrounding both the recapitalization of the Greek banking sector and the imminent rights issues which the banks are about to launch, as well as the state privatization process. In light of this critical period, Aemilia Varfis highlights the importance for Greek listed companies to engage and understand the behaviour of their international shareholder base. This process primarily involves having a knowledge of their final investors, in order to maximize support in upcoming general meetings, as well as undertaking an in depth analysis of their overall corporate governance structures.
For the third year in a row, Sodali supports the IR Global Ranking initiative – the most widely respected annual global ranking of corporate governance practices by listed companies. The press release announces the revision of the governance ranking performed by Sodali, together with the other partners.
The article provides an overview of the issues faced by companies in those countries in which some kind of shareholder vote on compensation is required. John Wilcox provides advice on how companies should prepare to the 2012 AGM, justify their decisions and explain the link between their compensation scheme, the companies’ strategic goals and shareholder value.
Sodali, the global corporate governance consultancy and shareholder services firm, announced today that it has hired Thomas Laschetti as Director of Development in the firm’s London office.
Il Mondo, the economic weekly magazine of Il Corriere della Sera, published the 2012 Italian Proxy Update Cover Story. The article features interventions of Michelle Edkins, of the global institutional investor Blackrock, Domenico Siniscalco of Assogestioni, the Italian Mutual Fund Association, the headhunter Egon Zender and Sodali. It focuses the attention on the increase of foreign participation (Sodali), the importance of Engagement (Blackrock) and of Independent Directors (Egon Zender).
The article comments about how Brazilian shareholders are starting to become activists after discovering the importance and the scope of their role as agents of governance. The article highlights John Wilcox’s comments about increasing activism in the next AGM 2012 season which has become targeted “value activism” through which shareholders would like to discuss companies’ business strategy displacing the traditional governance type and how companies may predict activists’ vulnerabilities.
A few days after the EGM of OPAP S.A, which essentially confirmed the implementation of the largest investment program in the history of the company, Chairman and CEO of OPAP, Ioannis Spanoudakis reveals the efforts the company went through to ensure all shareholders were informed: “We did not leave any decision to chance. The reason for this is because there are many cases in the past where shareholders resisted due to lack of information. What did we do? In addition to our own initiatives, we hired Sodali as proxy manager, who in turn contacted respective contacts and companies representing the majority of our institutional investors. This move proved highly effective in combination with the additional information provided by the Board and the Investor Relations department, particularly with the two largest shareholders – we made sure we pass the message went through.”
The article describes the influence of Proxy Advisors in the Brazilian markets during the AGM 2011 season and highlights high profile cases in which negative recommendations made a huge impact on shareholders voting behavior for the first time.
