Executive Summary: This third annual edition of Governance Insights presents Davies’ analysis of the corporate governance practices of Canadian public companies over the course of 2013 and the trends and issues that influenced and shaped them. We expect 2014 to be an active year for governance themes with greater calls for diversity on boards, a … Continued
Topics covered include: Key Issues Requiring Directors’ Focus Purpose of Corporate Governance Corporate Governance Trends Director Duties and Risk Management Executive Compensation Board Structure Director Elections Takeover Defenses Shareholder Activism
Highlights: Recently, interim Commissioner of Competition John Pecman provided several insights into the direction of competition law enforcement under his leadership. Mr. Pecman emphasized his intention to incrementally increase the Bureau’s “strategic and targeted regulatory interventions” in Canada’s regulated sectors in order to advocate for the promotion of competition. To address the challenges faced by … Continued
Executive Summary: In our annual review of the topics shaping governance today, we consider the ideas that will trend in boardrooms across Canada for months and years ahead. The dominant theme is the shareholder. Directors need look no farther than the events of 2012 to convince them that shareholders have the power to seize the … Continued
Highlights: Recent efforts to impose quotas for women directors for companies in the European Union has provoked controversy not only as to the optimal gender balance of boardrooms but also as to whether a quota system is a fair or effective way to achieve the underlying objective of women’s full and equal participation in corporate … Continued
Highlights: This paper attempts to explain the tendency of foreign acquirers to choose better performing firms in emerging markets, which limits underperforming firms’ access to foreign capital. Using a simple law and finance model, the authors offer an explanation based on emerging countries’ weaker investor protection compared to acquirers’ home countries, predicting a positive relation … Continued
Highlights: Wachtell Lipton has petitioned the US Securities and Exchange Commission to modernize the blockholder reporting rules under Section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to prevent exploitation by stockholder activists and address current market conditions and practices. Among other things, the petition proposed that the time to publicly disclose such block acquisitions … Continued
Executive Summary/Highlights: The Act on simpler and more flexible laws of private limited liability companies (“BVs“) will come into force on 1 October 2012. The changes introduced by this Act will offer greater freedom in structuring BVs. This article summarises the key changes and possibilities introduced by the new law. It also addresses a few … Continued
Executive Summary: On 27 April 2012, a significant law was passed amending the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The changes to the Russian Civil Code proposes to introduce new institutions and rules of the civil legislation and to amend, supplement and otherwise update many existing laws. The attached memorandum summarizes some of the most … Continued
Highlights: Along with the global economic and financial crisis, a string of frauds resulted in the introduction of stricter corporate governance mechanisms in India, with additional requirements, including in the pending Companies Bill, under consideration. While these changes were expected to plug new holes found in the existing regulations, there was also growing realization that … Continued
