Tomorrows Company Monthly Newsletter

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance, SRI/ESG News

The daffodils are in full bloom in St James Park, and to match this in nearby Whitehall and Westminster there has been an abundance of new government consultations on company and investor behaviour.

 

Tomorrow’sCompany has welcomed many of these reviews and taken the opportunity to discuss our responses with our member community ahead of submitting them.

 

We are currently collecting feedback and discussing our response to the Government’s green paper on the industrial strategy ahead of the submission deadline on 17 April. Overall,our main concern about the various reviews is that the question of how to support and encourage investment by large UK companies appears to have fallen between the gaps. Let’s not forget that our companies are net savers to the tune of 7% of GDP. That is one of our central problems.

 

The unsuccessful bid by Kraft Heinz for Unilever has also been in the news. Given the respective track records of the two companies, this prompts many to question whether global capitalism has a human face and you will see that I have been commenting on the stewardship obligations of boards when takeovers are under consideration. It will be interesting to see what Vince Cable has to say about this when he speaks to our members in May.