Thursday, May 29, 2008

Large-caps set high corporate governance standards, but independence still an issue for some

For those that have felt the corporate governance requirements under SOX were unreasonable, consider these findings in Austrailia regarding corporate governance practices. The themes sound all too familiar.

Australia’s largest publicly listed companies generally meet all aspects of best practice guidelines for corporate governance; however full independence still remains a key issue for some major companies.

The 2008 BDO Kendalls Large-Cap Corporate Governance Survey, released today, shows that while independence at the board level is not an issue for most (70%) of Australia’s top 20 listed companies, a number of large companies do not meet best practice guidelines in relation to their audit, remuneration or nomination committees.

The survey methodology used has been developed by BDO Kendalls over a number of years and in some cases sets a higher standard than the ASX best practice principles for corporate governance.

Areas highlighted included some companies having audit, remuneration or nomination committees that were either not made up of all independent directors or the chair was not independent. The survey findings are based on the 2007 annual report disclosures of the 20 largest Australian listed companies by market capitalisation as at 13 March, 2008.

Large-caps set high corporate governance standards, but independence still an issue for some

Labels: Austrailia, BDO Kendalls Large-Cap Corporate Governance Survey, corporate governance

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