A comparative analysis of shareholders rights in differnt Essay

A comparative analysis of shareholders rights in differnt jurisdictions - Essay Example nd China. The recent financial crisis and convergence of accounting standards through IFRS have attracted the attention of world leaders towards the importance of corporate governance practices in various countries. Whether the shareholders possess enough rights and exercise these rights to safeguard their interests has been much debated because despite the presence of the board, corporations have failed. The analysis of shareholder rights has been facilitated by comparison of three companies from each of the three countries. The chosen companies are Balfour Beatty Plc, KBR Inc and CNOOC Limited. The comparison is based on each of the three companies’ disclosures regarding the shareholder rights in their annual reports and websites. 1.1.1 Background of Research Managers are responsible for the administration of day-to-day operations of the corporation. The shareholders exercise their rights and control in large corporation through board of directors. The directors of the organ ization are entrusted with the responsibility of sound corporate governance practices through direction, oversight and representation of shareholders. Generally, shareholders of a corporation do not engage in the management of corporation but appoint managers to carry out the business operations. However, this may not be the case when the managers own shares of the corporations in the form of share options. Exercised worldwide, this is one way to align the managers’ interests with that of the shareholders. Corporations mainly issue two types of shares, preference shares and common shares. The preference shareholders get the priority for dividends and when the corporation is liquidated, they get preference to claim over the common shareholders. However, preference shareholders do not have voting rights. Common shareholders, on the other hand, reserve the rights to vote on appointment of board members, decisions concerning dissolving of the corporation, and other fundamental ch anges in corporation such as changes in capital structure from increase in number of outstanding shares. In general, voting involves issuing a proxy card to each registered shareholders. A proxy is a person who is authorised to carry out the instructions from the shareholder. In the annual shareholders’ meeting, he/she will cast the vote on behalf of the shareholders, in case the shareholder is not able to directly vote (Davis 2003, p.34). The rights of shareholders increase with the increasing ownership. For example, in many countries, a shareholder owning a specified percentage like 5% has the right to place an issue on the agenda in the shareholders’ meeting or a majority shareholder can force a formal audit of the financial statements. In practice, the rights and entitlements with the ownership of the shares are seldom fully utilized by the shareholders. 1.1.2 Aims & Objectives In order to reach any conclusion and provide recommendations related to the shareholder rights, it is necessary to formulate the objectives of the study, which are as follows: 1. To compare and contrast the provisions of shareholders rights in corporate governance frameworks in UK, USA and China. 2. To analyze the extent to which the shareholders in the three countries exercise their rights by comparing three companies, each from the three countrie