– The listing of Brazilian meat packing company JBS on the New York Stock Exchange has put it in the firing line of animal rights groups, Reuters reported (paywall).
Various groups condemned the move publicly and criticized the SEC, citing JBS’ deforestation in the Amazon and several criminal investigations into the firm’s activities.
In recent years JBS has been implicated in a corruption scandal in Brazil and was fined heavily over charges bribery relating to its 2009 acquisition of US meat company Pilgrim’s Pride.
– Shein is considering ways to restructure to avoid the impact of the ‘de minimus’ tax exemption, as it faces Trump’s 120 percent tariffs on its cheap clothing.
According to the Financial Times (paywall), a third of the Chinese fast fashion retailer’s sales come from the US, and it is considering moving manufacturing outside of China to avoid the levies. Any such move could put its long-awaited London IPO at risk.
'Internally we are all focused on figuring out how to deal with the tariff situation at the moment. Before we have clarity on that, no one can even start to think about the IPO,’ an anonymous executive told the Financial Times.
– Mining giant Rio Tinto has withstood a push from an activist investor to end its dual listing, Bloomberg reported (paywall).
The firm is currently listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange as separate entities, a structure which hedge fund Palliser said was preventing it from unlocking $28 bn in shareholder value.
However, just 19.35 percent of the necessary 75 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the motion after Rio waged a counter campaign against Palliser’s proposal for months.
– According to the Financial Times, activist investor Irenic Capital Management is buying up shares of UK food outlet group SSP for a potential strategic shake-up.
Irenic has previously urged SSP, which operates various food shops at train stations and airports, to take steps to improve its profitability. The fund, whose founders are alumni of Elliot Management, waged a similar campaign at Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group.
SSP has struggled to recover from the pandemic, facing persistent cost inflation and a slower-than-expected rebound in rail travel.
– The US House Judiciary Committee has held off a proposal in a budget package that would strip the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of its anti-trust powers, The Washington Post reported (paywall).
US representative Jim Jordan introduced the measure on Monday but asked the judiciary committee to remove it on Wednesday, a request which was passed.
The FTC is in the process of investigating whether online tech platforms – such as Elon Musk’s X – have limited the free speech of the Donald Trump and his supporters through its antitrust mandate.
– Motorbike maker Harley Davidson is fighting back against an activist’s nomination for a new chief executive, CFO Dive reports.
H Partners, which owns a 9.1 percent stake in the firm, wants current CEO Jochen Zeitz, along with Harley Davidson’s presiding director and director, to leave. Zeitz, meanwhile, has pointed to the firm's CFO Jonathan Root to be his successor.
‘We do not believe an outgoing CEO and directors with a track record of value destruction should be making critical long-term decisions,’ said H Partners in a filing.
Harley Davidson argued that the investor’s campaign ‘offers no constructive solutions that will benefit Harley-Davidson or its shareholders, and is in our view designed to enable H Partners to appoint unelected and unnamed Directors — including an H Partners representative after their representative just resigned from the Board — depriving shareholders of their right to choose their own representatives.’
The motorcycle company’s AGM is scheduled to take place May 14.
Talia Samuelson
Talia Samuelson is a reporter for Governance Intelligence. She previously worked as a journalist in Buenos Aires and has covered compliance in Latin America.
