Local companies fail to provide information

A majority of local companies neglected to provide information on their corporate management and governance three months into the adoption of a mechanism that enables the national pension operator to use the data in better exercising its voting rights as stakeholder, an analysis indicated Monday.

CEO Score, which tracks corporate management, canvassed 159 local firms in which the National Pension Service (NPS) own a stake of 5 percent or more.

The results showed that only 36, or 22.6 percent, provided full reports on their business performance and governance structure.

On July 30, the NPS adopted a stewardship code - a set of guidelines for institutional investors to become active shareholders to speak for the interest of its beneficiaries. The pension operator said it will have a say in selecting and dismissing board members of invested firms, have closed-door dialogue with companies on corporate value and go public with names of companies that are found to have serious management problems.

The NPS would review corporate reports on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in making its decisions.

Leading companies such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor, Posco and SK Hynix were found to have released full reports, but 77 firms (48.4 percent) only released partial information.

The other 46 companies (28.9 percent) limited their disclosures to bits of their ESG agendas.

“The NPS had said it will use ESG information in its investment decisions, but the standards are unclear and disclosures fall short,” said Park Joo-geun, head of CEO Score. “We need to clarify what the guidelines are on required ESG information.”

Yonhap