Should Chinese Companies be given access to 'West'?

Maybe it is too late, but given this kind of news, should Chinese Companies be given access to 'Western' Capital Markets and be allowed to acquire companies (and indirectly extend their sway over huge numbers of employees?). So far the SRI and ESG - let alone the Corporate Governance Crowd - has abstained from expressing strong and clear views on this issue - but given the determination with which Xi and his minions proceed this debate cannot be swept under the carpet forever. Similar concerns can be raised with all other non-democratic states - and please no hair-splitting, we all know an authoritarian society when we see one.
(30-Nov-2017)
China's Tech Giants help Government surveillance effort (Wall St Journal, Paywall)

CEO's still don't get it!

Interesting snippet about the views of a CEO with a leading bank. "Let's have a review about how the economy is compensated". Nice try Mr. Ermotti, but where shall we begin? This would mean to start a debate about our whole economic system but appears to me to be a diversion from the obvious problem: Why do CEO's get paid so much more than ordinary mortals, even those working in the same company? Tucker might well include other industries in his argument, but for one reason or another he focused on bankers.
UBS' Sergio Ermotti tries to divert attention from banker's pay

Corporate Bullies - what has ESG/SRI crowd to say about it?

With growing concern about ESG and SRI issues in the top echelons of the Investment Industry it would be nice to see some action and not just pious public relation statements and advertising. One may not agree on issues such as the one described in the article, but at least investment fiduciaries should make their position clear.
Stop subsidizing the Big Wind bullies | New York Post

Private Equity Fees - a glimpse behind the curtain!

Most end investors - and even their often gullible fiduciaries acting as 'limited' partners in the Private Equity investment vehicles - are blissfully unaware of the myriad of fees that are charged to the funds they are invested in. So the current spat between some Private Equity big wigs allows a peek into this opaque world. Given that the disputed fees relate only to the money invested by three officials of the funds one can imagine the amount of money that was charged to the proportionally much larger amounts coming from the 'limited' partners (ultimately Joe Sixpack). Surprisingly the critics of executive pay in listed companies are mostly (all?) silent on the goings-on in the 'discreet' world of (not so) 'Private' Equity where most of the money really is invested on behalf of the general public. (16-Nov-2017)
Marketwatch

Level of Executive Pay is not addressed!

All very well when some 'Big Names' from the Corporate Governance Crowd point out that pay structures should encourage longer-term thinking in the C-Suite (how long is long enough though). But I still think that the question of absolute pay levels also need to be addressed. Otherwise ANY amount of compensation could be justified if the company has performed well enough. (15-Nov-2017)
Financial News (Pay Wall)

One more nail in coffin for Exec Pay Schemes

No surprise about this report, the logic of Executive Pay Schemes for the few are already discredited. What is needed is action by the top investment fiduciaries, i.e. the largest investment funds, private banks, pension funds and insurance companies. No need for Proxy 'Advisers'. (7-Nov-2017)
Marketwatch

Chairmen - expensive decoration?

If the USA gets by without expensive chairmen, why keep them in clover here in the UK? Just a retirement bounty for the old boys? (6-Nov-2017)
Bloomberg

Bloomberg Chairman sits on Glencore Board

This creates not only a potential governance problem, it also means that the Public cannot be 100% certain that reporting is conducted on arms-length basis. Not without reason a wise man once said that freedom of speech (and media) means that 200 (very) rich can say what they want. Read the last line of this article!
(6-Nov-2017)

Bloomberg

Major Fund Managers to collaborate on Governance

David Walker, a so-called City 'Grandee', suggests in a recent article that major fund managers should extend and intensify the practice of collaboration in order to improve shareholder stewardship. While this is going in the right direction - Pro Governance has for a long time argued that corporate governance can be decided if the top 30-40 investment institutions get around a table - it leaves open the question of how this collaboration should be organized (and more importantly, how its effectiveness should be monitored and judged).

In my opinion, the practice of meetings behind closed doors and endless discussions on an ad-hoc basis would not be acceptable. Only clear and public rules would be able to provide an effective way to police thousands of companies. This would also play into the hands of Mr. Walker's second suggestion, the monitoring of the activities of fund managers with respect to their governance practices.

But in both cases it requires the involvement of the (real) end investor, the savers that invest with pension funds, mutual funds or private banking firms. A survey of fund managers might be a worthwhile endeavour but not if it is just a box-ticking exercise without any further consequences.

Whether the improved shareholder stewardship will lead to greater economic productivity is something that is being discussed (especially in the United Kingdom) for more than 30 years. Intuitively one might think (and hope) so but it if far from being proven, Japan, Korea have done extraordinarily well for long periods of time and their governance practices were (and are) far from perfect.
Your comments please! Or is Corp Gov just a game played for and by insiders?
(4-Nov-2017)

Daily Telegraph (Pay Wall)

Multiple Share Classes - Easy Solution

While MSCI mulls over what to do about Multiple Share Classes I see an obvious solution: publish indices with and without these shares and give the investors the choice of yardstick they prefer.
But give end investors the same option, so ask pension fund sponsors and clients of mutual funds and private banks which index they want to have used as a benchmark. (3- Nov-2017)
Bloomberg