Dual-class shares threaten shareholder democracy and good governance
Despite City enthusiasm for dual-class shares, corporate governance is largely unworkable without equal treatment for all shareholders.
Image: AshDesign/Shutterstock
We could be forgiven for thinking that the proposed changes to the London listing rules following Lord Hill’s report were a done deal. Powerful lobbying from the London Stock Exchange and other City players may have all but pushed the measures—including the introduction of dual-class shares for premium listed companies—over the line.
The recent announcement of multi-billion pound initial public offerings for London portrayed, as miraculously saved from the clutches of markets in Amsterdam and New York, must mean the advisory fees and bragging rights from IPOs are in sight.
The government’s stated post-Brexit aim “to make the U
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