Glass Lewis struggles to put the genie back in the bottle

Glass Lewis: glass houses

The Streisand effect, where attempts to undo the release of information only succeed in highlighting its existence, has a perfect form in the email recall message.

That’s a lesson learned recently by Glass Lewis, the proxy adviser, after it inadvertently tipped off clients about the voting intentions of one of the world’s biggest investment managers. Alongside a “Controversy Alert” bulletin flagging its recommendation to reject a European multinational’s remuneration report, Glass Lewis attached a form that named the Wall Street shop and outlined vote by vote if it would follow the advice.

Whether clients had spotted the attachment or cared about its contents quickly became moot. Within a few hours they received the first of several increasingly agitated “Action Required” emails.

Not only did Glass Lewis want recipients to erase immediately all evidence of its mistake, the company demanded they recite by email reply a legalese oath running for more than 100 words. The retroactive vow involved swearing not to “use, rely on mention any of the client sensitive information . . . in any communications, either verbal or in writing”. Clients had to promise too that the information would never reach the media.

For those wondering what they had missed, the affidavit helpfully highlighted that they had to “particularly” disregard “the client sensitive information included on the cover page”.

Takeover Panel: stuck in neutral

No woman has ever received a cold shouldering, the Takeover Panel’s ultimate sanction that blocks a miscreant’s access to the regulated financial industry. In the male-dominated world of mergers and acquisitions the omission should be no surprise, though it has meant a potential loophole has gone untested.

On Thursday the regulator issued a redraft of The Takeover Code, the City’s M&A bible, which in current form presupposes that everyone with an interest in securities is male. Most revisions follow logical lines: “chairman” changes to “chair” and variations of “person” replace the Code’s hundreds of references to “his”, “he” and “him”.

Expunging gendered language also gave licence to sharpen up some clumsy wording. The rule for delegation of responsibility has been rejigged in ways unrelated to pronouns for the section on concert parties, “person” replaces most references to the already neutral “party”.

Changes “do not materially alter the effect of the provisions in question”, said the Panel. Any women choosing to ignore its guidance and test their invulnerability have until July 5, when the revisions take effect.

Ian Hart: M&A gamekeeper

UBS’s joint chair of UK investment banking will be the next director-general of the Takeover Panel. Ian Hart, who begins his two-year secondment at the regulator in July, started his career at SG Warburg in 1990. The 54-year-old also had stints at Citigroup and Morgan Stanley before joining the Swiss bank in 2016.

Among Hart’s most recent assignments has been to advise copper miner Kaz Minerals on the contentious takeover by an investment vehicle part-controlled by its chair Oleg Novachuk. Previous roles have been no less fraught.

While at Citi Hart helped advise Britannia on its disastrous 2009 merger with Co-op Bank, which led to their near collapse. He was on the J Sainsbury team for its proposed merger with Asda, which was blocked in 2019 by the competition watchdog. And in 2006 he helped HMV reject a £842m takeover approach from private equity house Permira; the music retailer entered administration seven years later.

Goldman Sachs: chocolate tea-spots

David Solomon, Goldman Sachs chief executive, has been pursuing an austerity drive for the rank and file. But small changes greeting workers returning to its London head office in Fleet Street this week seemed more about expressing high-minded principles.

Pasted to the bank’s fleet of cappuccino makers was the following notice: “As part of our continued efforts to eliminate single-use plastics, we have replaced the hot chocolate sachets with a premium hot chocolate vended from the coffee machine. Thank you for your ongoing support of our environmental initiatives.”

A no-tolerance policy on drinks sachets should help offset some of the emissions produced by the two new Gulfstream jets Solomon bought late last year.