Friday 9 December 2016

Europe: shareholder rights in EU companies - revising the Shareholder Rights Directive

The EU's committee of permanent representatives (COREPER) has today endorsed an agreement between the Slovak presidency and European Parliament representatives in respect of a new Directive to amend the existing Shareholder Rights Directive (2007/36/EC). Further information, including a summary of the proposed amendments, is available here and here.

One of the amendments will require institutional investors and asset managers to develop and disclose their policy on engagement (or explain why they have chosen not to do so); it will also require them to describe how engagement activities are integrated in their investors strategy as well as how conflicts of interest are managed. This will place onto a statutory footing what some countries already require through stewardship codes (see, e.g., the UK Stewardship Code) and is a further example of the juridification of governance norms.

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