Colleagues in the Environmental, Safety and Health practice group have published an interesting post on the recent Vedanta Resources decision. In that case, the UK Supreme Court held that a claim for negligence and breach of statutory duty against a mining company based in Zambia and its English parent can be heard by the UK courts. Click on this link to read more: https://www.freshlawblog.com/2019/05/01/uk-supreme-court-considering-parent-company-liability-for-environmental-harm-caused-by-overseas-subsidiaries/  …

The draft Companies (Directors’ Remuneration Policy and Directors’ Remuneration Report) Regulations 2019 (Draft Regulations) have been published as part of the drive to encourage long-term shareholder engagement and to strengthen the governance and performance of traded companies. The Draft Regulations implement the following articles of the Shareholder Rights Directive II (2017/36/EU), which must be transposed into national law by 10 June 2019: Article 9a – the right to vote on a company’s remuneration policy; and Article 9b…

The Investment Association has announced that it will target pension perks and poor diversity in the 2019 AGM season.…

The Investment Association has published guidelines concerning the redemption or cancellation of irredeemable preference shares. The aim of the guidelines, which are of general application to listed companies, is to promote market confidence in irredeemable preference shares as an asset class and avoid reputational risk for issuers.…

Introduction The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (“PLSA”), representing the occupational pensions industry, has published guidance on market best practice to assist its members when exercising their vote at AGMs in 2019. The revised version of its Corporate Governance Policy and Voting Guidelines (“Guidance”) reflects the introduction of the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code which applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2019 (“Code”). Interestingly, the Guidance does not follow the format…

The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), being the leading international policy forum for securities regulators which focuses on the quality of financial reports and good corporate governance, has published a report on good practices for audit committees of listed companies in supporting external audit quality. The report focuses on the importance of ensuring the quality of a company’s financial report, the independence of any external audit in achieving market confidence, transparency and effective functioning capital markets and…

The GC 100 and Investor Group have updated their directors’ remuneration reporting guidance 2018 to reflect the changes to reporting requirements (under Schedule 8 to the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 (as amended)) introduced by the Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018. The guidance seeks to facilitate the statutory disclosure regime and help companies to satisfy the prescribed reporting requirements. Before addressing the specific statutory provisions, the guidance includes a useful discussion…