RIYADH: Saudi Aramco’s minority listing in London has come under fresh fire from a good governance specialist that speaks for some of the most influential investment funds on the stock market.
The International Corporate Governance Network, whose members include big institutions such as Legal & General, Aviva Investors and Hermes Investment Management, raised concerns about the implications for the quality and integrity of the UK market of the creation of a category for sovereign-controlled companies to accommodate the listing. The new category might be attractive to issuers and underwriters but would be “anathema” to high standards of corporate governance, ICGN said. Listings should include “appropriate protections” for minority investors, it added.