Fernando Rodriguez | The Corner interviews Juan Prieto, CEO of the Spanish Proxy advisor Corporance Asesores de Voto. “Corporance is the first Spanish proxy advisor, committed to help institutional investors comply with their voting and engagement responsibilities in our market, under SRD II.” he says
Francisco Blanco Bermúdez* | The transposition into Spanish law of EU Directive 2017/828, dealing with the encouragement of long-term shareholder engagement in listed companies, and some other related proposals will imply some changes to Spanish legislation. For example, the striking proposal that will mean that listed companies will be free to publish or not publish financial information on quarterly results.
The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown has posed many challenges for companies, but among the top concerns for audit committees has been corporate disclosures and the relationship with shareholders. After taking care of employees, this has perhaps been one of the most critical issues throughout the crisis. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has stressed the importance of timely disclosures for shareholders to satisfy the needs of investors.
Fernando Rodriguez | Alfredo Echevarría, Director of financial analysis at Ligthouse -the IEAF’s financial analysis service for Small &Mid Cap companies supported by BME- explains their next steps to The Corner…
KPMG, DWS, BNP and Caixabank analyse the changes that sustainability regulation will bring about for companies, markets and investors. In a virtual meeting held at the IEAF-FEF, sustainability experts explained the challenges they face in the ever-changing legal and operational framework surrounding sustainability at an international level.
Although Enrique Castellanos has been linked to BME Institute for almost two decades, he will soon have been its director for one year.
-What makes the Institute you run different from others in your area?
Fernando Rodriguez | ECGS and Georgeson’s reports on recommendations given to investors at the 2020 shareholders’ meetings point to the main weaknesses in governance. “The aspects of the information distributed at the IBEX 35 shareholders’ meetings that received the most negative voting recommendations from us are similar to those from other companies in Europe,” summarises Juan Prieto, CEO of Corporance, the proxy advisor that belongs to the European ECGS network. So far this year, Corporance has made recommendations to investors at 36 shareholders’ meetings, in total, 614 concrete proposals on different items on the agenda, 18 for each annual shareholders’ meeting.
Fernando Rodríguez | Carlos Sáez Gallego, general director of Georgeson in Spain and Portugal, analyses for The Corner how the Ibex35 companies’ shareholders meetings have been evolving in 2020. He also looks at other issues regarding European investors’ regulation which has just been transposed into Spanish law.
Fernando Rodriguez | The experts developing the Lighthouse Project have already issued 68 information notes on listed companies that had not been subject to any analysis.The listed companies analysed are: Liwe, Prim, Nicolás Correa, Amper, Ercross, Lingotes Especiales, Adolfo Domínguez, Borges, Iffe Futura, Bioserch, Face Phi, Desa, GAM, Ecolumber and Audax Renovables.