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☆ US due diligence firm Mintz Group says staff detained in China after office raid
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Michael Martina | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - U.S. corporate due diligence firm Mintz Group said on Thursday its Beijing office was raided by authorities and five Chinese staff were detained, stoking worry among foreign companies in China just as its capital hosts an international economic forum. "We can confirm that Chinese authorities have detained the five staff in Mintz Group's Beijing office, all of them Chinese nationals, and have closed our operations there," the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "Mintz Group has not received any official legal notice regarding a case against the company and has requested that the authorities release its employees," the company said. 'RED ALERTS'As per Mintz Group's website, the Beijing office is its only one in mainland China. Western due diligence companies have gotten into trouble with Chinese authorities before.

Christopher Willard | Walt Disney Television | Getty ImagesOn the advantage of being an underdog: I grew my business in a man's world. There were no businesses in New York City, especially in real estate, that were owned by women. There weren't any women role models, and the men weren't very forthcoming [with advice]. When I was just starting out, I went to a community business event and none of the men would even talk to me. On why she likes to partner with women in business: Women are more willing to listen [than men], and they're not as cocky they'll be an instant success.

☆ Spooked dealmakers scurry back into their foxholes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Jeffrey Goldfarb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Jonathan Kanter, a lawyer by training, has become something of a magician. Pay closer attention, however, and Kanter is methodically rewriting a decades-old regulatory playbook. Last year, these breakup charges reached their highest level in a decade, at an average 4.5% of deal prices. The Department of Agriculture partnered with the DOJ on the case, another feature of Kanter’s plan of attack. As legal weaknesses emerge, dealmakers should be in position to better structure transactions and defend themselves at trial.

☆ U.S. Corporate Boards Boosted Sustainability Experience in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Dieter Holger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Companies are shoring up sustainability experience in the boardroom as they face mandatory climate-disclosure regulations. Among Fortune 500 companies, 25% of board appointees in 2022 had previous experience on sustainability committees, up from 14% in 2021, according to executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. “Boards feel like they don’t always have the right skills, knowledge, language about what’s going on,” she said. In the longer term, the work of these sustainability committees should be more integrated into the company’s overall strategy, Ms. Breeden said. The agenda of sustainability committees varies among companies and industries, Ms. Breeden said.

Asia is falling far behind its regional peers in terms of female boardroom representation, analysis from MSCI and BofA Securities showed. An average of 20% of Asia's boardrooms are made up of women, according to research by BofA Securities – that's merely a 7% improvement from 12 years ago. Female boardroom representation remains a key metric to track the global progress on gender equality. However, the gap in wage, employment, and boardroom representation between men and women remains large. "The proportion of companies reporting employee diversity is 67% but only 35% of those employees are females," they said.

☆ A man's world: gender parity will take more than five generations
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Joice Alves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The analyses of the data in the WEF's Global Gender Gap report takes into consideration gender disparity in economic opportunities, education, political empowerment, health and safety. The BofA data shows that U.S. companies with greater gender diversity have offered a median 20% higher return on equity since 2005 than those who lack it. According to consultancy firm EY, almost half of European financial services investors state that gender diversity in the boardroom significantly influences their decision to invest in a company. For senior executive roles, gender parity still looks out of reach. U.S. companies focused on gender diversity on boards and senior executive level have achieved 43% lower earnings risk in subsequent three years than those who lack such diversity, BofA said, citing its own analysis.

☆ ‘Women are the true unicorns’: This millennial investor is breaking barriers in venture capital and betting on female founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Goh Chiew Tong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

"One class I was taking was [about] venture capital and our professor was super well connected," she recalled. Women are the true unicorns in this venture capital world." In a venture capital industry where women make up less than 15% of check-writers, Sun stands out. Fundraising 'a moving bar'Sun decided to start her own venture capital fund when she realized that women founders' biggest pain point is "lacking capital to grow." Even so, companies founded by women are still receiving just 2.5% of all venture capital investments, according to PitchBook data.

☆ Analysis: US lawsuit to block JetBlue-Spirit merger casts chill over future airline deals
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Rajesh Kumar Singh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

CHICAGO, March 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal lawsuit to block JetBlue Airways Corp's (JBLU.O) purchase of Spirit Airlines (SAVE.N) has raised hurdles for future airline deals, making it harder for companies to pursue growth and manage costs. Mergers and acquisitions are a time-honored way for companies to both boost revenue and profit through cost cutting. But the DOJ lawsuit could send a chill through airline boardrooms, said Addison Schonland, partner at consulting firm AirInsight. American Airlines (AAL.O), United Airlines (UAL.O), Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) and Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) control 80% of the domestic market. The lawsuit against the JetBlue-Spirit deal was widely expected because of the Biden administration's crackdown on large deals between publicly listed companies, analysts said.

In February 2022, the business-led FTSE Women Leaders Review set FTSE350 companies a 40% target for women on boards and in leadership teams by 2025, up from a previous target of 33%. The new goal was given official backing by the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates listed companies, in April 2022, with the watchdog also including broader diversity targets. In contrast to countries such as Belgium and France, Britain does not have a mandatory quota system for women on boards at listed companies, making the progress more remarkable, the report said. Just over a decade ago, 152 of the FTSE 350 Boards had no women on them. Now there are women on every board and the vast majority of companies have three or more, it added.

☆ Revisiting JPMorgan’s innovative Cazenove deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Peter Thal Larsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

JPMorgan avoided most of these problems by structuring its deal as a joint venture with Cazenove. Though the corporate entity called JPMorgan Cazenove was quietly wound down a few years ago, the name still graces the U.S. group’s UK banking business. At the time of the JPMorgan deal, Cazenove acted as broker to almost half of the companies in the FTSE 100 Index (.FTSE). By 2009, the enlarged business reported a pre-tax profit of 280 million pounds. The Cazenove deal still stands as a case study of how to buy an investment bank without destroying it.

☆ Kristen Bell: In business, 'I don't have an MBA,' so I make up for it with 'emotional intelligence'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Megan Sauer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

For most of her career, Kristen Bell had more experience in front of cameras than in boardrooms. At those companies, Bell initially felt "out to sea" when her colleagues discussed "ROI and endcaps," Bell recently told Real Simple. So instead of trying to keep pace with business jargon, she leaned into her own strengths to facilitate better communication among employees. "I don't have an MBA," Bell, 42, said. So when Bell experiences imposter syndrome at either of her two businesses, she leans into her emotional intelligence and communication skills to overcome those doubts.

☆ Pressure Mounts on CIOs to Build More AI Apps (and Faster)
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Magesh Sarma, chief information and strategy officer for AmeriSave Mortgage Corp., said his team has been inundated with requests to build AI apps aimed at tackling various cost issues. But the AI team, which consists of 76 employees, has been one of the least affected because of its business value. Ms. Anderson has a system for evaluating the priority level of different possible machine-learning projects that come to her department via a request pipeline, she said. Photo: ERIC GAILLARD/REUTERSOne area she hasn’t been able to fully tackle is machine-learning algorithms to help with customer retention. “With AI, it’s an incremental sort of approach.”Adding to the pressure is the exploding popularity of ChatGPT and other generative AI applications.

☆ Business Technology Chiefs Question ChatGPT’s Readiness for the Enterprise
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Angus Loten | Chris Bedi | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

Yet some business-technology professionals are uneasy about integrating it into the enterprise stack, citing concerns over its use of online data and security risks. But at the moment, ChatGPT “should be used with caution in an enterprise business setting,” she said. Newsletter Sign-up WSJ | CIO Journal The Morning Download delivers daily insights and news on business technology from the CIO Journal team. For now, Mr. Schmidt said, generative AI capabilities should be reserved for writing corporate boilerplate—product or service announcements, or other promotional materials. For enterprise information-technology, “ChatGPT use cases might be a smaller universe than people are imagining,” he said.

☆ McDonald’s Ruling Shifts Oversight Liability Focus to Corporate Officers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Dylan Tokar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +9 min

Photo: McDonald’sThe ruling by Vice Chancellor Laster focuses on the claims against Mr. Fairhurst specifically. At the time of his termination, Mr. Fairhurst had been the subject of multiple reports of sexual harassment during his tenure, according to the Delaware ruling. Emerging oversight liabilityThe legal doctrine driving the McDonald’s shareholder lawsuit extends back to a 1996 Delaware Court of Chancery decision. The ultimate impact of Judge Laster’s ruling vis-à-vis McDonald’s shareholders is as of yet unclear. If the judge approves the McDonald’s directors’ motion to dismiss, the claims against Mr. Fairhurst would be moot.

☆ Exclusive: Inside the extramarital affair and cash-fueled double life of Charles McGonigal, the FBI spy-hunter indicted for allegedly taking Russian money
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

She had dated federal law enforcement officials before. "Charlie McGonigal knew everybody in the national security and law enforcement world," Guerriero said, in an exclusive interview with Insider. One law enforcement source estimated that McGonigal stood to make roughly $300,000 to $350,000 a year, including annual bonuses. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whom she knew from law enforcement circles, let her stay in a guest bedroom. During her relationship with McGonigal, Guerriero says, they never talked about politics.

☆ How the market is rating the risk of debt ceiling default and a divided, dysfunctional Congress
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Eric Rosenbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

That would be the worst-case outcome, of course, but even the best case will probably see the sort of brinksmanship that occurred in the 2011 debt ceiling crisis." From the Senate, Mitch McConnell recently said it's an issue for Biden and the House GOP to work out. Kevin Brady , the former top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, dismissed talk of debt default as "fear mongering." Narrowness of GOP House majority does matterJPMorgan also referred to the path for a political agreement as being "narrow." In 2013, the Federal Reserve ran a simulation of a debt default by the U.S. government.

☆ MoviePass CEO Stacy Spikes on his plans to relaunch the service (for real) and bring back an unlimited option
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jason Guerrasio | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +20 min

Stacy Spikes told Insider he plans to put MoviePass out of beta and make it available for all by the summer. You would think Spikes would want to run as far away as possible from the movie-ticket-subscription startup. Before Stacy Spikes created MoviePass he created the Urbanworld Film Festival. I wanted to put that down because I see so many times people approach me and think MoviePass was my first business. MoviePassThe MoviePass beta version is focused on the credits system, e-ticketing, and fixing bugsWhat have been the biggest challenges in getting this beta version of MoviePass off the ground?

☆ Toshiba buyout heralds a big step back for Japan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

MUMBAI, Jan 20 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The end of a long battle to wring some value from Toshiba (6502.T) is finally within reach. Such an outcome won’t encourage private equity firms, and big policy shifts underway may stifle the industry just as it hits a new high. Instead, after an accounting scandal in 2015, Toshiba came to epitomise Japan Inc’s pervasive value destruction. Japan typically outperforms private equity deals in other developed markets, partly because existing incentive structures for company bosses are so poor. The country’s private equity industry is only just finding its feet.

☆ Global shareholder activism sees record number of European campaigns
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Amy-Jo Crowley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Benoit TessierLONDON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Activist shareholders stepped up pressure on corporate boardrooms last year by starting 235 campaigns to shake up companies, including a record number in Europe. Activists buy up stakes in companies to lobby for change that they hope will improve a target’s share price. Large-cap companies with a value $25 billion or more accounted for the biggest share of overall campaigns, while technology and industrial companies accounted for roughly four in ten campaigns. Lazard's report said that while the number of activist campaigns rose sharply last year, activist investors’ returns were hit by tumbling public market performance especially in the United States. Mergers and acquisitions-related campaigns, including "sell the company" demands, also made a come-back and represented 41% of all campaigns, despite global dealmaking suffering a fall last year.

Rising interest rates roiled markets last year and global investment banking revenue sank more than 50% from a year-earlier quarter, according to data from analytics firm Dealogic. SHARPLY LOWERAcross the board, investment banking fees were sharply lower. Morgan Stanley's revenue from investment banking business fell 49% in the fourth quarter while Goldman Sachs's investment banking fees fell 48%. JPMorgan's investment banking unit saw its revenue down 57%, Citigroup Inc's (C.N) investment banking revenue plunged 58% while Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) investment banking fees more than halved. Strength in trading helped offset a slump in investment banking, while interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve helped income.

☆ A CEO's apology is a make-or-break moment. Here's how to do it right.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

When a CEO or company messes up and trust is broken, the apology must be done right. Trust is the everyday currency of business, PwC's Wes Bricker says. CEOs must be aware that the way they apologize is just as important as the words "I'm sorry." In recent years, a corporation's or CEO's apology has taken on greater significance because customers and employees are often quick to demand that leaders take ownership and show transparency around their actions. Sucher said CEOs were receptive to a framework on how to apologize because "everyone messes up at times."

☆ Being ready for anything is top priority for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Peter Thal Larsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

In the past three years, the world has been rocked by a string of unexpected and epoch-defining events. Anyone trying to think about what 2023 will bring is confronted by a staggering array of possibilities. Watch whether the United Arab Emirates, which hosts the COP28 climate conference in November 2023, distances itself from the OPEC oil cartel. Encumbered by lower stock prices and pricier financing, merger activity will remain subdued in 2023. Follow @peter_tl on Twitterloading(This is a Breakingviews prediction for 2023.

☆ Boardrooms will rediscover the value of gray hair
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( John Foley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

To firms keen to avoid repeating past mistakes, the graying of the Western workforce may not be a bad thing in 2023. The share of European over-55s in jobs grew to 20% in 2019, from 12% in 2014, according to official data. The typical incoming CEO is 55, a decade older than the average in 2005, according to Crist Kolder Associates. Money markets are pricing in U.S. rates of 5% by the summer. Financial markets will always love the next new thing, but for the time being, gray is good.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. "Shareholders don't want to hear it, but you really have great difficulty selling a company at a good price today," the widely followed activist investor Icahn told Insider. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. That means that the sale of companies like Southwest Gas is off the table for the time being — or will get done at prices far lower than before. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

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