Tag: activist investor

Restoring Financial Regulators’ Right to Fight Climate Change

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://earther.gizmodo.com/restoring-financial-regulators-right-to-fight-climate-c-1846476253

Excerpt:

Already, over the past few weeks, Biden’s Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it will update its guidelines on how climate risks should be disclosed to investors, and launched a task force to focus on climate-related compliance and misconduct. The SEC has also refused to help ExxonMobil block a shareholder vote on a climate-change resolution. (Although the commission did just let the company reject a shareholder proposal to force the operation to disclose what it plans to do with its untapped fossil fuel assets.)

This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission sided with ExxonMobil in rejecting a shareholder proposal to require the company to report how it plans to deal with “stranded assets” — untapped fossil fuels that the company is counting as assets but may never be drilled, meaning they will turn into liabilities.

Author(s): Dharna Noor, Walker Bragman

Publication Date: 15 March 2021

Publication Site: Gizmodo

CalPERS and SBA Florida Vote FOR Effissimo’s Proposal to Toshiba

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210314005038/en/CalPERS-and-SBA-Florida-Vote-FOR-Effissimo%E2%80%99s-Proposal-to-Toshiba

Excerpt:

California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)1 and State Board of Administration (SBA) of Florida2, the largest and fifth-largest public pension funds in the US, have publicly disclosed that they have voted FOR Effissimo Capital Management’s shareholder proposal to conduct an independent investigation of Toshiba Corporation’s (TYO: 6502) 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM).

SBA Florida cited three reasons for its supportive vote: “Conflicted review process; Insufficient resolution of outstanding concerns; Reasonably proportionate request.”

The votes by prominent institutional shareholders of Toshiba follow earlier disclosure by California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the second-largest public pension fund in the US, that it was voting FOR Effissimo’s proposal.

Author(s): Effissimo Capital Management

Publication Date: 14 March 2021

Publication Site: Businesswire

NY State Comptroller DiNapoli Statement on McDonald’s Agreement to Tie Executive Compensation to Diversity, Workforce Management

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/2021/02/ny-state-comptroller-dinapoli-statement-mcdonalds-agreement-tie-executive-compensation-diversity?utm_source=weekly%20news&utm_medium=email&utm_term=municipal%20audit&utm_content=20210221&utm_campaign=fiscal%20oversight&section=body

Excerpt:

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, released the following statement today in response to McDonald’s decision to disclose workforce diversity data and tie executive compensation to the company’s ability to foster inclusion and ensure improved human capital management. As a result of McDonald’s new policy, DiNapoli and the Fund are withdrawing their shareholder proposal that had asked the company to connect executive compensation to the company’s management of ESG and workforce issues. The Fund owned 1,674,102 shares in McDonald’s valued at $359,229,000 as of Dec. 31, 2020.

…..

“It’s my hope that other companies follow McDonald’s example, particularly those corporations where New York state’s pension fund has filed similar shareholder proposals seeking greater attention to, and respect for, their human capital. 

Author: Thomas DiNapoli

Publication Date: 18 February 2021

Publication Site: Office of the New York State Comptroller