Premium
Empirical Evidence of Long‐Termism and Shareholder Activism in UK Unit Trusts
Author(s) -
Solomon Aris,
Solomon Jill
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
corporate governance: an international review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.866
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1467-8683
pISSN - 0964-8410
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8683.00159
Subject(s) - corporate governance , unit (ring theory) , shareholder , accounting , voting , business , unit trust , empirical evidence , institutional investor , empirical research , investment (military) , public relations , finance , political science , law , philosophy , mathematics education , mathematics , epistemology , politics , market liquidity
In this paper, we assess the impact of recent reforms in UK corporate governance, focusing specifically on aspects of the reforms which apply to unit trust managers, a major group of institutional investors, and their investee companies. We canvass the views of UK unit trust managers to shed light on three issues: the extent of shareholder activism by UK unit trusts; the extent to which longer and stronger decision and communication links are being forged between investment institutions and their investee companies, and; the emerging controversy over whether or not these recent reforms represent a help or a hindrance for unit trust managers. The empirical findings indicate that unit trusts: are active shareholders, developing and using written voting policy documents; are encouraging the development of longer and stronger links with their investee companies, and; have welcomed corporate governance reforms.