Title: Cross-border share voting and improving voting chain deficiencies in the 21st century

Authors: Alison Lui

Addresses: School of Law, Liverpool John Moores University, Redmonds Building, Brownlow Hill, L3 5UZ, UK

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore current difficulties with shareholder engagement in the 21st century in light of complex cross-border voting chains. To improve the quality of shareholder engagement, the study recommends that cooperation between countries needs to be strengthened by improving information flow and transparency. Better disclosure is a fundamental step to improving information flow and cross-border voting. There are a number of legal and practical hurdles in relation to cross-border voting. As it is unlikely that the length of the voting chains will be reduced owing to the inherent structure of the ownership model, a combination of legislative modifications and improved voting facilities with reduced costs are necessary. The initial strong compliance to the concept of 'stewardship' in the UK is difficult to sustain owing to the inherent structure of the complex, equity chain model.

Keywords: cross-border voting; shareholder engagement; shareholder activism; institutional investors; share ownership model; stewardship; voting chain deficiencies; information flow; transparency; UK; United Kingdom.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCG.2015.069770

International Journal of Corporate Governance, 2015 Vol.6 No.1, pp.70 - 85

Received: 26 Aug 2014
Accepted: 28 Feb 2015
Published online: 09 Jun 2015 *

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