GMI Ratings Announces Promotions, New Hires New York — January 24, 2013 — GMI Ratings, the leading provider of research on environmental, social, governance (ESG) and accounting-related risks affecting the performance of public companies, today announced staff additions and promotions. Howard Sherman, Executive Director, assumes leadership responsibilities for all non-US operations. Based in GMI Ratings’ [...]
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GMI Ratings Announces Promotions, New Hires
January 24, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, GMI Press Releases
Novartis Cuts Executive Pay as Chairman Resigns
January 23, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst The Swiss drug maker Novartis AG (NVS) cut the 2012 pay of its CEO Joseph Jimenez and board chairman Daniel Vasella, who is stepping down from his role next month. Mr. Jimenez earned CHF 13.2 million in total compensation for his performance in 2012, or 16% less than the previous [...]
Rio Tinto Cut Staff Before Spending $935 Million in 2012
January 22, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst Rio Tinto plc (RIO) cut back on staff before the mining giant’s recently departed CEO Tom Albanese pushed ahead with a nearly $935 million investment in 2012. The company has downwardly revised by $14 billion its estimates about assets it bought in earlier years. Rio Tinto said last week that Mr. [...]
Abercrombie & Fitch: Material Governance Risks Behind Lurid Controversies
January 18, 2013 in AGR, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, Ratings Watch
By Damion Rallis, Senior Research Associate While one’s typical reaction to clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF) is to either gawk adoringly at its half-clothed models with rock-hard six-pack abs or sneer at its darkened nightclub atmosphere, here at GMI Ratings we notice a different kind of figure: the overall pay disparities among its [...]
Event Alerts for Responsible Investors, 1.18.13
January 18, 2013 in AGR, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
In this week’s Event Alerts for Responsible Investors, we included 20 companies whose ESG and accounting risk profiles have been affected by recent events. Companies Environmental Social Governance Accounting Boeing (NYSE: BA)Echelon Corporation (NASD:ELON)Clearwater Paper Co. (NYSE: CLW) Boeing (NYSE: BA)Anglo American Platinum Ltd (JNB:AMS)SandRidge Energy Inc. (NYSE:SD)Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) NIKE, Inc. (NYSE:NKE) Hon Hai [...]
Pressure Rising Over SandRidge Energy’s Governance
January 17, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Agnes Grunfeld, Managing Director, and Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst The pressure on SandRidge Energy, Inc. (SD) continues mounting as critics protest about the Oklahoma oil and natural gas company’s corporate governance. But SandRidge has shown warning signs of corporate governance problems for more than a year. On January 17 the shareholder Mount Kellett Capital [...]
Media Comment On JPMorgan’s Whale Report
January 17, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, Executive Pay, Ratings Watch
By Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst JPMorgan Chase (JPM) released a 132-page report on Jan. 16 that detailed the “London Whale” story surrounding a $2 billion investment fiasco. On the same day the New York financial services firm said its board approved compensating CEO Jamie Dimon $11.5 million for his work in 2012, or around half as much [...]
Biweekly View: How to See Which Payday Lenders Regulators Should Hate
January 17, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research Inc., has staked his reputation on Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB). He said in a Business Courier article on January 20, 2012 that the stock had bottomed after declining 13% the previous year, and he recommended it as an investment. So far, [...]
RBS Reportedly Soon to Settle LIBOR Case, But Other Issues Linger
January 16, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reportedly may pay up to £500 million in fines next week related to allegations of interest rate manipulation. The case is one of many that the U.K. bank has warned could adversely impact its investors. As regulators continued investigations into bank misconduct relating to [...]
The Lottery Solution to Audit Quality
January 15, 2013 in AGR, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Kimberly Gladman There’s been a lot of discussion about whether mandatory auditor rotation would improve audit independence. A new PCAOB report makes me think that assigning auditors to companies through a lottery system might do even more to improve audit quality. Here’s why. Last week, I wrote about how alarming I found a December [...]
Several JPMorgan Directors Long Serving and Well Paid
January 15, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst Several directors who are reportedly reviewing federal orders that JPMorgan Chase (JPM) fix its risk management have supervised the New York financial services firm’s CEO Jamie Dimon for many years. They also earned as much compensation in exchange for their services as some bank employees do. The U.S. Federal Reserve [...]
Corporate Governance Key To Gulf Country Success: Deutsche Bank
January 14, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Research Analyst Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates stand a “solid chance” of succeeding in developing their financial markets and promoting their competitiveness, Deutsche Bank said in a recent research report. Some drivers that the German financial services firm noted included progress made in corporate governance-related matters. [...]
Apollo Group Continues Its Freefall Amidst Its Freefall
January 11, 2013 in AGR, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, ESG Ratings & Research
By Damion Rallis, Senior Research Associate On Tuesday, embattled not-for-profit education company Apollo Group Inc. (NASD:APOL) revealed a new set of bleak numbers in its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2013, including a decline of 11.7% in operating income from the prior-year first quarter and a decline of 14.3% over the same [...]
Blyth’s Blight Continues to Dismay Shareholders
January 11, 2013 in AGR, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, ESG Ratings & Research, Ratings Watch
By Damion Rallis, Senior Research Associate While the bulk of ongoing media scrutiny of multi-level marketing firms focuses on Herbalife and its battle with hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman (see our report “Herbalife: With Vital Signs Flagging, the Company is Fighting Back”), other firms engaged in similar marketing practices should also start working on their rebuttals. [...]
Event Alerts for Responsible Investors, 1.11.13
January 11, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
In this week’s Event Alerts for Responsible Investors, we included 22 companies whose ESG and accounting risk profiles have been affected by recent events. Companies Environmental Social Governance Accounting Royal Dutch Shell (AMS: RDSA) Integrys Energy Group (NYSE : TEG) Ecopetrol S.A. (CLB:ECOPETROL) American International Group, Inc. (NYSE:AIG) Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) Carrols [...]
Shell Spilled More Oil In Recent Years
January 10, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Financial Reporter Royal Dutch Shell plc had more oil spills during 2011 compared to the previous year. The U.K. energy company warned about the potential impact such events could have upon its investors in its most recent annual regulatory filing. After a storm near Alaska’s Sitkalidak Island drove Shell’s drilling unit the [...]
Can Only Spider-Man Save Marvell Technology Group?
January 9, 2013 in AGR, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, Ratings Watch
By Damion Rallis, Senior Research Associate The day after Christmas proved to be a rude awakening for semiconductor manufacturer Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASD:MRVL) and its beleaguered shareholders. A jury in Pittsburgh delivered a $1.17 billion verdict against the company in a long-running patent lawsuit with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). While some shareholders are giving [...]
Monsanto: The Contrarian View
January 9, 2013 in AGR, Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint, ESG Ratings & Research
By Lev Janashvili Against the backdrop of Monsanto’s rising share price and an impressive earnings report, the FT’s “Lex” team yesterday delivered a contrarian view of the agricultural giant’s growth prospects and valuation. The brief report (Monsanto: lords of the harvest?) acknowledged Monsanto’s growth catalysts (e.g., strong demand for corn seeds in the US, strong [...]
AIG Managers Earned Multi-Millions Post-Bailout
January 9, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Financial Reporter American International Group Inc. (AIG)’s senior managers earned multi-million paychecks after the U.S. government bailed the company out in 2008. The New York insurer’s board will reportedly meet today to consider joining a $25 billion shareholder lawsuit alleging that the U.S. government enforced onerous terms in connection with its rescue [...]
SunOpta Continues Reducing Workplace Injuries
January 8, 2013 in Corporate Governance, Daily Viewpoint
By Sonja Ryst, Financial Reporter SunOpta Inc. (STKL) said it continued reducing the number of recordable injuries in its workplace during 2011, according to its recently released 2012 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. The natural and organic foods maker said that it had around 100 workplace injury claims, or 22 fewer recordable injuries compared to 2010. [...]