Oleg Zabluda's blog
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
 
Companies with multiple share classes are no longer eligible to join S&P 500
Companies with multiple share classes are no longer eligible to join S&P 500
"""
he policy change, announced by S&P Dow Jones Indices, rejects potential eligibility for Snap Inc. as well as Blue Apron Holdings Inc., both of which went public this year.

The move comes as other major index companies, including FTSE Russell and MSCI Inc., MSCI 3.03% are evaluating similar index changes to assuage concerns about investors getting limited or no voting rights. The issue is that increasingly popular index funds are otherwise forced to buy stakes in companies that leave investors with little say in corporate decisions.
[...]
The ruling effectively pits two trends against each other—the move toward multiple-class voting in corporate governance and the increased popularity of index investing.
[...]
About 15% of the tech companies that went public in the U.S. between 2012 and 2016, including Facebook Inc., Fitbit Inc. and Twilio Inc., did so with at least two classes of stock, up from 8% between 2007 and 2011,
[...]
Snap took the trend to an extreme in March, when the disappearing-photo app company sold Class A shares in its initial public offering that carry no voting rights, while early investors hold Class B shares that get a small portion of the voting rights. The company’s co-founders, Evan Spiegel and Robert Murphy, are the only owners of Class C shares, which control about 90% of the voting rights.
[...]
Some $8.7 trillion in assets is benchmarked or indexed to the S&P 500, according to S&P Dow Jones.
[...]
BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group and State Street Global Advisors, the world’s largest managers of index-tracking funds, are signers of a governance initiative called the Investor Stewardship Group that sets principles for U.S.-listed companies including the adoption of a “one-share, one-vote standard” and avoiding unequal voting rights.

U.S.-based mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that track indexes owned 13.9% of the S&P 500 at the end of March, up from 4.6% in 2005,
"""
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-indexes-push-back-against-dual-class-listings-1501612170
https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-indexes-push-back-against-dual-class-listings-1501612170

Labels:


- posted by Oleg Zabluda @ 1:27 PM | permalink | | | technorati | bloglines | feedster
| |

Home

Powered by Blogger