An organization that advises pensions for unions belonging to the Change to Win labor group has a new target: Merrill Lynch & Co.
The pension fund, CtW Investment Group, is calling on Merrill Lynch directors to "describe what they did to protect shareholders from excessive mortgage-related risk over the past two years."
The fund said in a statement that it plans to launch a "just vote no" campaign against Merrill Lynch's nomination committee chairwoman, should the investment bank not provide a thoughtful response to its question. (CtW would have preferred to consider urging investors to oppose members of the finance committee, but none of these members are up for election this year.)
The investment fund earlier this week took similar actions against five directors at Citigroup Inc., another bank besieged with mortgage-related problems.
Both Citigroup and Merrill Lynch have recently been the recipients of massive cash infusions (read: bailouts) from controversial state-controlled sovereign wealth funds. In December, Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. took a $4.4 billion minority stake in Merrill Lynch. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority reported a $7.5 billion minority stake investment in Citigroup in November. - Ron Orol
Ron Orol is a Washington-based reporter for The Deal and author of Extreme Value Hedging: How Activist Hedge Fund Managers Are Taking on the World.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
CtW calls out Merrill Lynch directors
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1 comment:
It's funny, I have always believed that many of the best opportunities in global investments exist when government, or sovereign entities seek to change the way that people do business. Your post reminded me of that.
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