TheCorporateCounsel.net

The “Ceres Investor Water Hub” – a working group of more than 100 investors that represent $20 trillion in assets – has published an “Investor Toolkit” to foster engagement with companies on water issues. Among other topics, it covers:

– Types of water risks – physical, regulatory, social – and how to assess materiality

– Shareholder resolutions & trends linked to water

– Database of proxy voting guidelines that integrate water issues

– Engagement tips for investors

– Recommendations for incorporating water issues into investment decisions

This Forbes op-ed from Ceres’ CEO Mindy Lubber notes that 81% of major U.S. companies in water-dependent sectors have water stewardship programs – though only 37% have set qualitative targets to better manage water resources. It doesn’t take too much imagination to predict that there’ll be more requests for disclosure in this area.

Why Do Some Companies Go Public Through Debt IPOs?

I don’t see much written about private companies issuing public debt, so this study caught my eye. Here’s an excerpt:

As compared to companies in the same industry that conduct an equity IPO in the same year, companies that go public via debt are typically significantly larger and more easily able to disclose their important performance data through their financial statements (versus non-financial disclosure). When the debt-first companies eventually go public by issuing equity, they face lower underpricing than companies without public debt.

Ownership structure (backing by a financial sponsor such as a venture capital or private equity firm) and the relative cost of information production in debt versus equity markets appear to be significant in explaining why these firms choose debt before equity and their subsequent decision to issue equity. Future research on IPOs should take into account that firms do not just face a simple choice between going public and staying private, but also an intermediate choice of issuing public debt but staying private.

More on “Proxy Season Blog”

We continue to post new items daily on our blog – “Proxy Season Blog” – for TheCorporateCounsel.net members. Members can sign up to get that blog pushed out to them via email whenever there is a new entry by simply inputting their email address on the left side of that blog. Here are some of the latest entries:

– More on “Shareholder Meetings: What to Do With a Tied Vote?”
– Shareholder Meetings: What to Do With a Tied Vote?
– 6 Reasons Why Corp Fin Denies Exclusion Under SLB 14I
– Icahn, Elliott & Activist Peers Grab the Mic in Meeting Season
– Management Proposals: Factors for Those That Just Eke By?

– Liz Dunshee