On the Supplier Scene: 2018Q2

On a happier note, Computershare is set to purchase Equatex - “a Zurich based employee share plans administrator with a strong business across Europe [whose] 220+ employees provide a range of employee share plans administration solutions for over 160 clients, covering around 1.1 million plan participants in 168 countries and administering around USD 40 billion in assets. Equatex is an expert in managing deferred equity compensation plans for global businesses, with clients across all major industries including financial services, healthcare, industrial, pharmaceuticals, energy and IT,” per CPU’s March 18 press release. A nice reminder that there are still major pockets of strength in the share-registry business, and that, as we have been long reminding, there are many more potential employee-shareowners out there than there are “ordinary individuals” who have the money - and the desire to own equities directly these days.

The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute (IRRCi) announced in June that “it has selected the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware as its successor organization. The Weinberg Center will receive a grant from IRRCi in excess of $1 million as part of the successor transition. With these funds, the Weinberg Center will materially expand its environmental, social, corporate governance and capital market research, and also maintain the full IRRCi research library so that more than 75 research reports remain publicly available at no cost. The Weinberg Center also will continue to fund and manage the annual IRRCi Investor Research Award that recognizes outstanding practitioner and academic research.” (For history buffs, IRRCi was formed following the 2005 sale of IRRC to Institutional Shareholder Services (now MSCI) in order to continue the academic research that the “old IRRC” formerly engaged in.)