Insights & Spotlights - Clermont Partners

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Why Your ISS Governance Scores Just Went Down – And What You Can Do About It

ESG Communication

In late January, many companies saw their ISS ESG Governance Quality Score change overnight, without any changes to their actual ESG governance practices. The culprit? Some pretty substantial updates to two new subcategories that fall under the audit category: Information...

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5 Mistakes to Avoid in your CD&A Before you File your Proxy Statement

Proxy Advisory

With the deadline for calendar-year companies to file proxy statements fast approaching, now is a good time to review investors’ and proxy advisors’ expectations. Many institutional investors have made it clear they expect changes in executive compensation programs due to...

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How to Respond to Buy-Side ESG Priorities in 2021

ESG Communication

In it’s Winter 2021 issue of IR Update magazine, published by the National Investor Relations Institute, Elizabeth Saunders wrote an article that discusses what buy-side investors are saying about how companies need to demonstrate their commitment to ESG. To download...

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Time to Elevate Your IR Program

General

Despite a high-flying stock market, most management teams still believe they are undervalued, and often ask, “how can we align investor perceptions, and in turn investment, to our long-term opportunity?” In a continued virtual world, coupled with a return toward...

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Why Your Company Should Consider a Virtual Investor Day

Investor Day

For companies undergoing major transformation, be it strategic or otherwise, Investor Day events are the go-to method for unveiling strategic updates to investors, as well as a wider audience of stakeholders (including key customers, vendors, and employees). Countless in-person meetings...

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Dear CEOs: The Clock Is Ticking - 4 Actions to Take Now in Response to the New BlackRock Letter

ESG Communication

Corporate executives tend to approach Larry Fink’s annual letter with some wariness. These notorious communications hit the mainstream when the BlackRock chairman somewhat controversially called for the end to short-term guidance and corporate “near-termism” in 2016. And Mr. Fink was...

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Show Me the Money: Navigating the New Transparency Requirements For Corporate Political Contributions

ESG Communication

It has been about two weeks since the riot at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. captured news headlines around the world. While the aftermath and consequences of the events that took place in the nation’s capital are largely still...

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You Will Survive. But Guidance Expectations Are Back to Stay.

IR Consulting

If you found yourself feeling the need to bust out some Gloria Gaynor lyrics following the Q3 2020 earnings season, you were not alone. Many companies have been ‘surviving’ the pandemic much better than expected—or at least much better than...

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Grey Is The New Black

ESG Communication

Take Advantage of the SEC’s ‘Wiggle Room’ to Build High-Impact Human Capital Disclosure In August, after years of pressure from large investors, the SEC revised the Reg S-K disclosure requirements to “modernize” the descriptions of business, legal proceedings, and risk...

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Making BlackRock’s “Nice List” Just Got A Lot More Challenging

General

BlackRock Investment Stewardship (BIS) released its 2021 Stewardship Expectations a bit earlier than anticipated, which may prove to be a useful gift for companies that need a jump on making the changes investors are expecting to see in the new...

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Better Not Cry: Reasonable Executive Compensation Changes May Be Tolerated. But Crocodile Tears Won’t Be.

COVID-19

In “normal” years, executive compensation plans rely upon metrics like sales and profit to determine short-term remuneration. However, 2020 has been anything but normal. With COVID-19 spreading like wildfire around the globe, everything from sports to the presidential election has...

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The 3 Biggest Virtual Meeting Missteps of 2020 – And How to Avoid Them in 2021

Proxy Advisory

During the infamous spring of 2020, the U.S. annual shareholder meetings seasons opened up right as concerns about the coronavirus peaked, coinciding with government-imposed lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders. Executives of publicly-listed corporations had to scramble to rethink how to conduct...

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