Ryanair’s latest results are out today. Aside from the update on negotiations on unions, which I won’t comment on…, the bit that caught my eye is the commentary on Brexit and the potential knock-on impact on Ryanair’s shareholders:
We remain concerne…Read more…
Carillion: shareholder primacy plus shareholder inaction
As most people will be aware, the Work and Pensions and BEIS committee have published their joint report on the Carillion collapse today. I won’t bother rehashing much better summaries of what it says that you can read elsewhere, rather I want to focus…Read more…
Two interesting things
1. There are two different pieces about shareholder primacy, and why it might be a bad idea, in the FT today. One from the City editor of the FT and one from Rana Foroohar. Meanwhile Theresa May (remember her?) has criticised directors getting paid in …Read more…
Melrose / GKN bid arbitrage: like flies round…
The Melrose bid for GKN is currently subject to a lot of scrutiny, and is actively being campaigned against by Unite.
What hasn’t attracted much scrutiny so far (as far as I am aware) is the extent of speculative activity that is occurring, and as suc…Read more…
The slow-moving car crash
Executive pay is like a slow-moving version of MPs’ expenses car crash, but without the degree of self-awareness shown by politicians (who do face a meaningful threat of removal from office). Each year the same headlines, each year the same justifications, each year a bit more legitimacy lost. This…Read more…
Agency theory versus "shareholders are owners"
Here is Eugene Fama an early paper on agency theory:
ownership of capital should not be confused with owner- ship of the firm. Each factor in a firm is owned by somebody. The firm is just the set of contracts covering the way inputs are joined to …Read more…
Liam Byrne’s speech: a bit wrong, a bit sketchy, a bit interesting
Via Chris Dillow, I picked up this speech by Liam Byrne. It’s interesting to read someone who obviously disagrees with Jeremy Corbyn try and come to terms with the new centre of gravity in Labour. It’s worth noting, too, he uses the term “neo-liberalis…Read more…
EU says shareholders do not "own" companies
There’s a good summary of what is going on in the Shareholder Rights Directive here. Arguably the most significant part of it is below –
Shareholders do not own corporationsThe directive will explicitly acknowledge that shareholders do not own corporat…Read more…
More from the Future of Private Enterprise
Here’s a further chunk of text from George Goyder’s book setting out a good case for revisiting company law.
The Companies Act of 1862, on which all subsequent Companies legislation is based, gave to shareholders something which does not in equity belo…Read more…
The Future of Private Enterprise
One of the more interesting books I read in the past couple of years is the Future of Private Enterprise by George Goyder. It’s interesting for various reasons. For one, it’s a reminder that when it was published (1954) mainstream views about the natur…Read more…