Dan Tierney

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The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published its Policy Statement on “Enhancing climate-related disclosures by standard listed companies”.[1] This follows a consultation carried out by the FCA in June 2021. The FCA has decided to extend the climate-related disclosure requirements that currently apply to UK premium listed commercial companies to (1) issuers of standard listed shares and (2) issuers of Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) representing equity shares.[2] We expect this to have particular implications for GDR issuers, which may be required to grapple with climate-related disclosure requirements for the first time as a result of the new rules.
Continue Reading UK’s FCA Extends Climate-related Disclosures to Standard Listed Issuers, Including GDR Issuers

The UK Government has recently announced that it will introduce mandatory climate-related financial reporting for the first time.[1]

The new rules are likely to have particular implications for UK public companies listed outside the UK (particularly on the NYSE or NASDAQ) or on AIM, large UK subsidiaries of multinational corporate groups and large portfolio companies of financial sponsors that have a UK topco structure, where the new rules may require them to grapple with climate-related financial reporting for the first time.
Continue Reading UK Introduces Mandatory Climate-Related Financial Reporting for Large Public and Private Companies

As we have covered previously, one of the most noticeable trends that has emerged in the current boom in UK public M&A activity[1] is the heightened level of target shareholder opposition to bids. This is manifesting itself in a number of ways, including through increased and novel “bumpitrage”[2] campaigns as well as through institutional investors becoming more vocal in expressing their discontent at proposed bids. There appears to be a general feeling among a number of the largest UK institutional investors that private equity are acquiring UK public companies “too cheaply”.
Continue Reading UK Bids: Take-Private Boom Sees Negotiating Power Shift from Target Boards to Shareholders

The following post was originally included as part of our recently published memorandum “Selected Issues for Boards of Directors in 2020”.

In 2020, businesses operating in the UK will need to grapple with the continued uncertainty caused by Brexit and will need to closely monitor a number of important corporate governance and reporting…

On 16 July 2018, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) published the final, revised version of the UK Corporate Governance Code (UK CGC).[1] This will apply (on a “comply or explain” basis) to all companies with a premium listing in the UK for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2019.

The new UK CGC is one of a range of corporate governance reforms currently being implemented in the UK in response to the UK Government’s wide-ranging Green Paper Consultation on UK corporate governance reform.[2] Its publication concludes a seven-month consultation by the FRC, following the publication of a draft revised UK CGC in December 2017.[3] The FRC received 275 responses to its consultation from a wide range of stakeholders and has made a number of changes to its original proposals to address the feedback received. We briefly explore the most significant of these changes below.
Continue Reading New UK Corporate Governance Code Unveiled

As “social good” objectives (like the protection of the environment, the improvement of public health and the alleviation of poverty) rise up the corporate agenda in the UK, we examine how UK companies are reconciling the pursuit of these objectives with their directors’ duties, which normally require the prioritisation of the creation of shareholder value above other objectives. We also briefly explore the current trend of UK companies seeking to embed social and environmental purposes in their constitutions.
Continue Reading Social Good, Shareholders’ Interests and Directors’ Duties: Recent Developments in the UK

In a previous post, we wrote that the UK Government announced a series of reforms to the UK Corporate Governance regime in August 2017. Some of these reforms are being addressed through the on-going consultation on revisions to the UK Corporate Governance Code (UK CGC) (see our previous post for further details). The UK CGC is the main corporate governance code in the UK and applies (on a “comply or explain” basis) to all UK companies with a premium listing in the UK.

Another of the announced reforms was the development of a corporate governance code for large private companies, backed by new reporting requirements. This was a significant proposal because corporate governance efforts in the UK have historically focussed on publicly listed companies where shareholders are often distant from executives running the company. The Government’s proposal was driven by evidence that private companies constitute a vast (and increasing) portion of the UK economy and its recent experience that their actions (including several recent large-scale failures) can have a significant impact on their employees, suppliers and other stakeholders. This reform is expected to have important implications for a wide variety of large private companies in the UK, including UK subsidiaries of multinational groups and UK portfolio companies of private equity funds.Continue Reading UK Proposes a New Corporate Governance Code for Large Private Companies

On December 5, 2017, the Financial Reporting Council launched a consultation on its proposal to significantly revise the UK Corporate Governance Code.

The amendments seek to encourage continued improvement in the quality of corporate governance in the UK and are centered around the themes of company culture and diversity, employee and other stakeholder representation, responding…

On 29 August 2017, the UK Government published its response to its recent consultation on UK corporate governance reform. The Government has proposed 12 reforms to the UK corporate governance regime, centered around executive remuneration, employee and other stakeholder representation and corporate governance in large privately-held businesses. In this memorandum, we briefly explore each of…