(Bloomberg) -- Sherrod Brown, Wall Street’s likely new overseer in a Democratic-led Senate, is no fan of big banks -- though the industry is counting on the near deadlock in the chamber to forestall any sweeping legislative efforts to rein in lenders...
(Bloomberg) -- A group of investors including Domini Impact Investments and Trillium Asset Management are pressing retailers and restaurant operators to provide more information about the paid sick leave they provide for their workers, citing their heightened risk of contracting Covid-19. Letting employees quarantine and recover at home -- while receiving pay -- will help companies prevent outbreaks and store closures, the group said in a statement on Thursday...
(Bloomberg) -- Vanguard Group Inc. said it plans to vote against company directors who fail to push for greater racial and gender diversity on their boards. The money manager, which oversees $6.3 trillion, acknowledged that corporations are in the early stages of developing their boardroom diversity strategies, and that regional differences and regulations need to be considered...
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- It is possible, of course, that Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Monday-morning announcement of new emissions targets has nothing to do with the recent arrival of an activist shareholder calling for a more sustainable strategy at the oil major. Exxon took the trouble to say “the plan is the result of several months of detailed analysis,” and, with 2020 targets about to be yesterday’s news, an update of some sort was due in the near future...
(Bloomberg) -- S&P Global Inc. grew out of a firm that provided bond ratings and railroad data. IHS Markit Ltd. traces its roots to a British barn and an effort to offer prices for the opaque world of credit derivatives. Now, the second-biggest acquisition of 2020 will combine the two into a data Goliath that tracks everything from the price of wheat to the movements of hundreds of thousands of ships criss-crossing the world’s oceans...
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong’s securities watchdog has failed to secure convictions in its largest-ever investigation. Cho Kwai-chee, founder of Hong Kong’s largest private health-care group, was cleared of charges to defraud the stock exchange and investors in financial brokerage firm Convoy Global Holdings Ltd., where he had been a director. He was also found not guilty of publishing false statements in Convoy’s annual accounts...
South Korea is pushing for its most significant reform of corporate governance since President Moon Jae-in took office, a move that could add transparency to top decision-making at large conglomerates that dominate the economy. The conglomerates, known as chaebols, propelled South Korea’s rise as an export powerhouse...
(Bloomberg) -- The investors pushing for changes at CoreLogic Inc. have won three seats on the board of the data provider after a lengthy battle that has dragged out since June. CoreLogic said in a statement that preliminary tallies show that Cannae Holdings Inc. and Senator Investment Group have won the necessary support for three of their nominees: Steve Albrecht, Wendy Lane and Henry Winship. The statement confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report...
(Bloomberg) -- Aecom’s standstill agreement with activist investor Starboard Value expires next week, setting the stage for a potential boardroom battle at the engineering services firm for a second year in a row. The New York-based hedge fund, which owns a roughly 3.7% stake in Aecom, butted heads with the company in June over the appointment of new Chief Executive Officer Troy Rudd. The dispute resulted in Starboard Managing Member Peter Feld resigning from the board in protest...
Nelson Peltz wasted little time in choosing his next target in the asset-management industry, grabbing board seats at Invesco Ltd. Just months after Franklin Resources Inc.’s takeover of Legg Mason, a deal he helped engineer, the billionaire activist investor joined Invesco’s board alongside fellow Trian Fund Management co-founder Ed Garden. That’s a typical next step in Peltz’s playbook...
(Bloomberg) -- A blank-check company backed by former Citigroup Inc. rainmaker Michael Klein is among the parties interested in buying a stake in AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV satellite-television business, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Churchill Capital Corp. IV, which raised $2.07 billion in July, is working with advisers on a potential bid for the asset, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private...
(Bloomberg) -- Executive-turned-international fugitive Carlos Ghosn is gunning for revenge in a new book published this week about the events surrounding his November 2018 arrest in Tokyo, 130-day Japanese imprisonment and dramatic escape to Lebanon...
Invesco Ltd. plans to curtail spending on employee compensation as the asset manager aims to save US$200 million annually by the end of 2022. As much as 60 per cent of the expected savings will come from compensation, executives said Tuesday on a conference call to discuss third-quarter results. About US$150 million of the expense reductions will occur by the end of next year...
Increased scrutiny of numerous Wall Street financial institutions and firms has resulted from Friday's announcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of a civil fraud suit against Goldman Sachs...
(Bloomberg) -- Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Walt Disney Co.’s decision to lay off thousands of workers as a result of the pandemic, saying its lavish spending on share buybacks and executive pay enriched bosses and investors but eroded its ability to weather a downturn...
(Bloomberg) -- A U.K. investment-industry group whose members manage 8.5 trillion pounds ($11 trillion) of assets warned it will call out companies that don’t reveal the ethnic diversity of their boards. Nearly three-quarters of the U.K.’s largest companies failed to report the ethnic make-up of their boards at annual shareholder meetings this year, according to The Investment Association...
(Bloomberg) -- Activist investor Sachem Head Capital Management has made its biggest bet yet, taking a $1.2 billion stake in Elanco Animal Health Inc. to push for changes at the company. The New York-based investment firm, which owns a 9.1% stake in Elanco in stock and options, believes the company is undervalued and underperforming its competitors, including its larger rival Zoetis Inc., according to people familiar with the matter...
(Bloomberg) -- As billionaire Bernard Arnault made global headlines last month for his attempt to extricate his luxury empire LVMH from a $16 billion deal to buy U.S. jeweler Tiffany & Co., a smaller transaction by Europe’s wealthiest man back home in France went largely unnoticed...
Inside SoftBank Group Corp., the idea of going private through a buyout has been discussed off and on for at least five years. Almost everyone except founder Masayoshi Son opposes it, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The reasons are substantial: No one has pulled off a buyout anywhere close to SoftBank’s $130 billion valuation, it’s not clear the company could raise the necessary financing and such a complex deal would prove a distraction for at least a year, the people said...
Activist investor Jonathan Litt filed with regulators Tuesday to call a special meeting at Apartment Investment & Management Co. so shareholders can have a say on its plans to split its business into two parts. The move to seek support for a vote comes after Aimco ignored the investor’s request to hold a shareholder vote on the matter, which will see the company broken up into a real estate investment trust and a development company...
(Bloomberg) -- Activist investor Elliott Management Corp. has taken a stake in Noble Energy Inc., the energy explorer that agreed in July to sell to Chevron Corp. for about $5 billion. The stake was disclosed in a filing Tuesday with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission...
(Bloomberg) -- Just like in traditional investing, there are dozens of strategies you can use to be an ESG investor. There are funds that pick the best-rated low-carbon companies, funds that focus on companies with more women on boards, and funds that use a series of ratings and checklists to ensure the stocks they are betting on are “better” than the rest of the market. But is that the best way to get to a more sustainable future...
(Bloomberg) -- KKR & Co. added at least two diverse directors to the board of every company it controls in the U.S., part of a bigger push to expand its focus on underrepresented groups. About 30% of directors on the boards of KKR-owned American companies are now women or ethnic minorities, according to an investor letter obtained by Bloomberg...
(Bloomberg) -- It’s been a tough day for DraftKings Inc., with the online gambling company reporting a steeper-than-expected loss and facing a tax issue that could squeeze it even more. Jason Ader, a longtime casino-industry investor, think he knows what could help. He’s pitching the idea of DraftKings acquiring one of his holdings, the European gaming company Playtech Plc, as a way to shore up profit...
