The University’s Law School will be hosting a Company Law Roundtable on Shareholder Power on Thursday, 16 June.
The event, led by Professor Brenda Hannigan, will bring together a number of company law experts from institutions across the country, including the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Sheffield, Glasgow, London School of Economics (LSE), University College London (UCL), King’s College London (KCL) Leeds, and Bristol.
Topics to be covered will include:
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UK and US perspectives on the concept of shareholder primacy – should companies be run in the financial interests of the shareholders (larger profits and dividends), or should the interests of stakeholders (including employees, creditors and community interests), need to be accommodated to a greater degree?
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‘Say on pay’ – how much is too much for executive remuneration? In the face of soaring pay packages for chief executives, should shareholders act to stop these excesses? Can they?
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The growth in stewardship – many jurisdictions have adopted stewardship codes recently, urging investors to monitor and engage with the companies in which they invest. Can ‘stewardship’ protect investor interests and enhance company performance, or are these codes, in fact, devoid of substance?
Commenting on the above themes, Professor Hannigan noted that the issues being addressed not only raise significant legal questions regarding duties and liabilities, but are also issues which have implications for the day-to-day conduct of business on the British high street, as recent events at British Home Stores (BHS) demonstrate.