A collective of UK pension funds representing £350 billion in assets under management has restated its opposition to the London Stock Exchange (LES)’s perceived push to lower the boardroom standards of British plcs.
The Evening Standard reported that the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) is “resolute” in its criticisms of the exchange’s push for listing reforms.
LSE chief executive Julia Hoggett, who also heads the Capital Markets Industry Taskforce (CMIT), has pushed for more flexibility over reporting and voting requirements for listed UK companies.
In CMIT’s July minutes co-signed by Hoggett, the taskforce said that “good stewardship should be flexible and demonstrations of systemic stewardship should not be required”.
CMIT’s calls for regulatory reforms are aimed at reinvigorating the Lonodn capital markets at a time where a lack of investment has posed significant challenges for businesses trying to raise capital.
“We need to celebrate the entrepreneurship that goes on every day in listed companies and across the economy because it is not something we can take for granted,” Hoggett has previously stated.
“To celebrate those stories, it does require them to be told however, and I do hope that over time, more and more companies will feel able to tell their commercial stories, not just to investors, but to the wider public.”
LAPFF, meanwhile, “promotes the highest standards of corporate governance to protect the long-term value of local authority pension funds”.
“For LAPFF and its members, corporate responsibility and long-term shareholder value are two sides of the same coin,” reads LAPFF’s mission statement.
The Evening Standard quoted LAPFF chairman Doug McMurdo as stating: “We would point out that the cost of capital is set by investors in the markets, not lawyers, nor the sell-side, yet those are the only interests that have been represented by the CMIT, in our view.”