SC launches corporate governance monitor

In a statement, the SC said that it has not authorised any ICOs pending the finalisation of its guidelines.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Securities Commission launched its inaugural corporate governance monitor to highlight the positive levels of adoption of most of the practices recommended in the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG).

It said on Monday some of the main observations from the review in 2018 were that 27 of the MCCG best practices had an adoption level of more than 70%. This meant that more than 70% of the 841 listed companies had adopted these practices.

“Listed companies generally provide disclosures which contained the minimum information required to explain the adoption or departure from the MCCG practices,” the SC report said.

It said 131 listed companies disclosed the top five senior management remuneration in bands of RM50,000 and a further 25 listed companies disclosed the detailed remuneration of senior management on a named basis.

“Malaysia made steady progress in terms of gender diversity on boards. Comparing figures between December 2016 and December 2018, there was a seven percentage point increase for the top 100 listed companies (from 16.6% to 23.68%) and a four percentage point increase (from 12% to 15.69%) for all listed companies,” it said.

The SC said the target set in 2017 was to have no-all male boards in the top 100 listed companies by end of 2018 was achieved. In January 2018, the SC announced the seven top 100 listed companies with all male boards and these companies have since appointed  a woman director on their board.

The regulator also said 242 resolutions to retain long-serving independent directors with tenure of more than 12 years were put to the vote using the two-tier voting process.

One of the resolutions was defeated with dissenting votes of more than 70% in Tier 2.

“81% of CEOs of the top 100 listed companies by market capitalisation received RM10mil or less in remuneration,” said the SC report.