Issuers- Shareholders direct link
Comunicação recebida da Confederação (EUROSHAREHOLDERS)
For two years now there has been a study going on with the help of the European Commission and led by EUROPEANISSUERS regarding the direct link between issuers and shareholders that currently happens too much and too often via intermediaries who are not there to represent shareholders’ interests.
The context is te be seen in the light of what UNIDROIT ( Explanatory report to the draft convention on substantive rules regarding intermediated securities ) had proposed in its convention on intermediated securities. UNIDROIT is a private organization that studied the matter of what happens to shareholders if their bank goes bust where they put their shares.
The vision, if we can speak of a vision, of the European Commission is that intermediaries such as depositories can talk and act as the legal representatives of the end shareholder. It did not come to their mind, unfortunately,
That our members shareholders associations and Euroshareholders who has legal status could very well be the partner in dialogue between issuers and shareholders, certainly since shareholders give our organizations proxies.
The Commission is still at the stage of not deciding who really is the shareholder and too often is happy with a dialogue between issuers and banks or depositories/custodians and one side and issuers at the other side. We know how poorly investment funds are acting in favor of shareholders and we should voice the opinion that we represent shareholders, not intermediaries.
We saw in Vienna last Monday how Michael Knap and Willy Rasinger could by ask the right questions obtain reliable and useful information in the interest of the shareholders. This is the way to have a dialogue, not via intermediaries of intermediaries but with the proxy holders of the shareholders.
The study is going on and the working party is led by Mrs Dorien FRANSENS, secretary general of European Issuers (a.i.s.b.l., the same status as ours) as explained in “Market standards for general meetings, working paper for submission to the market participants”.
European Issuers want to know whom they talk to. They do not wish to talk to intermediaries, depositories and other funds that do not really represent end shareholders. We should support them and let it be known to the Commission. The European issuers will develop in this sense a code of conduct, a kind of market standards document favoring direct relationship between issuers and shareholders. This is a concrete project that we actively follow up and wish to discuss in Ljubljana.
Issuers do not want top waste their time discussing with uninterested intermediaries and wish to reach shareholders wherever they are. We suggested working with us!
This is a crucial moment to obtain more impact for shareholders as wanted by issuers. The Commission has unfortunately completely overlooked our existence while we are official and have this status in Brussels as in most national jurisdictions as official shareholders’ organizations.
The issuers want to talk to us, not to intermediaries. We should take advantage of their wishes and needs and show ourselves as interested parties! Some intermediaries want to prevent this direct dialogue.
Jean-Pierre Paelinck
May 9th, 2008
Euroshareholders
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