For 18 years, Board Games, the Globe and Mail's ranking of Canada's corporate boards, has shined a spotlight into the country's boardrooms. Once again this year, markers at the Johnston Centre graded the boards of 224 companies and trusts in the S&P/TSX Composite Index on the extent to which they adopted best practices in governance.
Here are some highlights from this year’s rankings:
• ManuLife is the top-ranked company for the third straight year with a perfect score of 100. The company scored full marks across all categories – board composition, executive compensation, shareholder rights and disclosure
• Nearly 50% of companies scored 80 points or higher
• 29% of companies have a provision to ‘claw back' incentive payments to executives in the event of gross misconduct or a financial restatement
• 76% of companies do not have a holding period for shares after the CEO leaves. This practice can encourage the CEO about to leave a company to continue to make decisions in the long-term interest of the company
• 29% of companies have at least 33% women directors on their board
• 42% of companies have a board gender diversity policy and disclosed information about recruitment processes to consider female candidates
• 36% of companies offer details on ways the company actively engages with shareholders apart from at the annual general meeting and quarterly meetings
• 15% of companies do not provide all shareholders with equal rights. Some have a subordinate share structure and others have a shareholder’s agreement providing a shareholder with disproportionate rights to ownership
• Dual-class share companies make up only 6.25% of the S&P/TSX Index and continue to lag behind their single-class peers in board ratings
VIEW THE RANKINGS HERE
** The Johnston Centre would like to offer a special thanks to lead researcher, Antonio Spizzirri and his team of summer research students for their exceptional work in getting the rankings out. The entire marking process takes six months and involves direct contact with most companies in the index.