“Despite the continued support of attacks by activist hedge funds by the Chair of the SEC, and many “Chicago school” academics who continue to rely on discredited statistics, there is growing recognition by institutional investors and prominent “new school” economists of the threat to corporations and their shareholders and to the economy of these attacks […]

“Yet companies, boards, and other investors should keep in mind that shareholder activism is often merely a tactic in a self-interested investment strategy. Shareholder activists such as hedge funds typically are pursuing short-term financial gain at the expense of long-term shareholders and stakeholders. These funds welcome the support of academics and theorists who argue that […]

“ A paper by Dr. Yvan Allaire entitled “The Value of ‘Just Say No,’” and also memos by our firm (here and here, the latter memo discussed on the Forum here), demonstrated that an ISS client note entitled “The IRR of No,” which argued that companies that had “just said no” to hostile takeover bids […]

Ten years ago, Professor Mihaela Firsirotu and I wrote a piece for the C.D. Howe Institute titled Changing the Nature of Governance to Create Value (No. 189, November 2003). We argued that the fiduciary type of corporate governance, the obsessive refinements of guidelines and rules, was fast approaching the point of diminishing, if not negative, […]

This policy paper makes recommendations to institutional investors as the prime clients of proxy advisors and to securities commissions as the protectors of the integrity of financial markets. For a variety of reasons, proxy advisors have come to exert undue influence on the governance of companies listed on the stock markets and to play a […]

This policy paper makes recommendations to institutional investors as the prime clients of proxy advisors and to securities commissions as the protectors of the integrity of financial markets. For a variety of reasons, proxy advisors have come to exert undue influence on the governance of companies listed on the stock markets and to play a […]

“[…] Invesco bought the bulk of its current Rona stake in May 2007 at a price varying between $17.10 and $17.75 per share so its current state of mind is understandable given the share drop since then, said Yvan Allaire, executive chair of Montreal’s Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations. Still, Invesco backed […]

” […] Like the PQ, the CAQ is intent on keeping corporate headquarters in the province intact after a rash of buyouts in recent years hollowed out local decision-making at companies such as Alcan and Molson. They argue head office power means jobs for local accountants and bankers and suppliers, a whole ecosystem of employment that […]

[…] “Yvan Allaire, chairman of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations, argues that the real rationale for Quebec’s meddling in Rona is to counter the difficulty, under current securities regulations, for the company’s board to reject a hostile takeover attempt. That compares with the United States, where boards have more power under […]

ISS backed Pershing long before CP battle The news that an American firm had come out in support of Pershing Square Capital’s slate of directors for the board of Canadian Pacific was ­received with bluster and fanfare in Canadian media. There is something strange, even bizarre, in an American outfit making pronouncements about the fate […]

Being subjected to a lesson in governance by a hedge fund, as the Maple Leaf Foods Corporation has to endure, is somewhat akin to being lectured on abstinence and modesty by the residents of the Mustang Ranch bordello in Nevada. Hedge funds, more appropriately called “speculative funds” in most cases, have resisted all efforts of […]