Berlin | The European Commission president has said she is increasingly optimistic that Europe will unblock long-delayed legislation this year aimed at boosting women’s representation in corporate boardrooms. Ursula von der Leyen told the Financial Times she is ready to work with France to push for the proposed directive during the six-month period of Paris holding the rotating EU presidency...

Vanguard Investment Stewardship Officer Glenn Booraem uses both soft power and hardline voting tactics to tilt corporate governance towards what ...

With the Hayne commission final report on Monday expected to tackle remuneration incentives and as leading global investors ramp up focus on culture and governance, the major banks – alongside other companies – will be forced to engage more deeply with institutional investors throughout the year to lower the risk of second strikes on their remuneration reports...

It came as a stinging blow for Paul Singer's Elliott Management when it lost out in a 2014 bidding war for networking equipment maker Riverbed Technology. The loss to a private equity consortium led by Thoma Bravo prompted a fundamental strategic shift at Elliott, which has in recent months started to bear fruit with a string of buyout deals by the US-based hedge fund. Elliott, which is best known for its bruising style of activism, had been putting pressure on Riverbed for more than a year...

Mondelez International is working with Morgan Stanley as it studies a bid for Arnott's Biscuits , which makes Tim Tams, and Danish butter-cookie producer Kelsen Group, people familiar with the matter said...

Andy Penn's $4.5 million salary self-funded retirees were the most vocal of Telstra's shareholders, but the real move against the chief executive's pay packet earlier this month came from industry and public sector super funds...

When getting the Fearless Girl campaign ready for launch, the State Street Global Advisors marketing team was prepared for the worst...

Paul Singer's Elliott Management has in recent months sold some BHP PLC shares and taken its exposure to the miner through other instruments instead. Bloomberg by Peter Ker Activist investor Elliott Management's exposure to the London half of BHP's dual-listed structure is believed to still be above 5 per cent, despite some recent share sales taking its direct shareholding below the crucial threshold...

The PC's Karen Chester does not agree industry super funds are deliberately different from other funds and have 'delivered superior returns on average'. Eddie Jim by Joanna Mather Superannuation funds are not doing enough to manage conflicts of interest, especially those that may arise around the boardroom table , the Productivity Commission says...

The cut in Jeff Immelt's final package, and a new pay structure for his successor, reflects attempts to link remuneration with performance. Peter Foley by Ed Crooks Jeff Immelt, the former chief executive of General Electric, had his total pay reduced by 72 per cent, to $US5m, for 2017, following a final year at the company marred by plunging profits, a dividend cut, and the announcement of thousands of job losses...

One of the City of London's most influential investors has called for a major overhaul of corporate governance including reform of executive pay and company culture...

Investors pressure BHP Billiton over dual listing Share BHP chief Andrew Mackenzie fronts investors on Tuesday to reports what is tipped to be the miner's best half-year profit since 2014. AAP by Peter Ker Two institutional investors want BHP Billiton to provide more detail on why the time is not right to unify its dual-listed structure as suggested by activist investor Elliott Management...

CEO Maurice James' total remuneration has increased from $3.7 million to $4.2 million, of which 70 per cent is linked to performance. Louie Douvis by Michael Smith Executive remuneration continues to baffle even the most seasoned company director this annual general meeting season despite a push to reduce the complexity of chief executive salaries. Qube Logistics is a case in point...

Proxy firms ISS and Ownership Matters have largely backed Ardent Leisure's board in its scrap with activist shareholder Ariadne, by recommending against the election of Ariadne director Gary Weiss at a crucial meeting next month...

Macquarie's strong first quarter reaffirms chief executive Nicholas Moore's track record for under-promising and over-delivering. The growing scrutiny on executive pay does not come at a good time for Macquarie Group. The appropriately-nicknamed "millionaire's factory" has never liked the spotlight on its bonus structure even though it is one of the key drivers of its success...

"We have been very disappointed": Chris Stott of Wilson Asset Management is critical of Ardent, but not clear on whether it will support Ariadne. Jessica Hromas by Michael Bleby Michael Smith Shareholder Wilson Asset Management is "disappointed" with the way Ardent Leisure has run the company, but hasn't yet formed a view on whether it will support a bid by activist shareholder Ariadne to get four new directors on the board of the troubled company...

The threat of the sale of a fifth of a company's shares would normally cause the price to fall. Yet L'Oréal, the French cosmetics company, has risen almost 4 per cent on just such a threat. On Monday, hedge fund Third Point revealed it had taken a stake in Nestlé and urged the Swiss consumer goods company to offload its 23 per cent holding in L'Oréal...

Andrew Liveris has come under pressure from Third Point. Simon Dawson by John Kehoe BHP perhaps should consider the relentless activist shareholder attacks Australian businessman Andrew Liveris has copped, just as the iconic miner tries to fend off aggressive American hedge fund Elliott Management...

3D printing start-up AbilityMate lets its staff nominate what they should get paid. The start-up is part of a growing shift towards more pay transparency within business, which together with employees anonymously sharing personal pay details on job sites such as Glassdoor, is breaking the culture of pay secrecy ...

Telstra chairman John Mullen says making executive pay public has pushed salary levels up. "Disclosure of salaries, yes, is great, but now that it's public I think it's pushed salaries up as a person can see what a person over there is getting. " LTI (long term incentive) structures have become extraordinarily complicated ...

AGL has promised to review pay packets for senior management including chief executive Andy Vesey after the energy utility was hit with a "first strike" against its remuneration report ...

The interaction between companies and shareholders over corporate governance has become a hotter topic in the US since the emergence of index ...

The former boss of Google in Australia, Maile Carnegie, says there is no reason ANZ Banking Group cannot become as innovative as the internet pioneer and she will need to help it move quickly to fend off growing competition from fintech disrupters and global technology giants ...

Macquarie Group chairman Kevin McCann has challenged a report that suggested recruitment of directors was too narrow and was limiting company growth, saying legal and accounting experience remained relevant. The Blenheim Partners report, based on ...