Sustainable Finance Newsletter - Exxon's Woods can boast in Brooklyn
By Ross Kerber
Sept 4 (Reuters) -New securities filings show Exxon XOM.N directors won strong support from top investment firms despite a controversial lawsuit the company brought against two tiny shareholder activists.
The disclosures put some interesting context around an upcoming appearance by Exxon's chief executive officer next week. You can read more about that in my column below.
I have also included links to stories by my colleagues including one about a possible Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE factory closing in Germany, and an interesting look at the growing demands for power from the AI and bitcoin industries.
Please send news tips, comments, etc by connecting with me on LinkedIn or reach out via ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com
Exxon's Woods can boast in Brooklyn
An upcoming appearance by Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods will give him a chance to tout the strong investor support he won despite a controversial lawsuit, and could provide some clarity around the suit's impact.
Woods, slated to speak virtually at a corporate governance conference on Sept. 10 in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, put Exxon into legal attack mode this spring against activist investors who filed a climate-related shareholder resolution for the company's annual meeting.
The lawsuit prompted a vote-no campaign against Exxon directors but Woods handily beat it back, new securities filings show. You can read more about the disclosures and what activists hope Woods will address next week by clicking here to read this week's column.
Company News
Volkswagen is considering closing factories in Germany for the first time, in a move that shows the mounting price pressure Europe's top carmaker faces from Asian rivals.
Left to scavenge for vast amounts of electricity to power AI and cloud-computing data centers, tech giants like Amazon AMZN.O and Microsoft MSFT.O are pursuing energy assets held by bitcoin miners.
U.S. miners and battery recyclers are rushing to close government loans worth billions of dollars before January on concerns that former President Donald Trump would, if reelected, block funding needed to boost American output of critical minerals for the energy transition.
On my radar
Britain's Serious Fraud Office was refused permission to appeal against a ruling that it opened a corruption probe into Kazakh mining group ENRC only because of its own wrongdoing, leaving the watchdog facing a hefty damages bill.
Brian Deese, an adviser to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign, in a recent piece in "Foreign Affairs" called for what he termed a "Clean Energy Marshall Plan" that would "subsidize foreign demand for clean energy technology and put American innovation and industry at the front of the line."
Five years ago the Business Roundtable released an updated statement on the "Purpose of a Corporation," including concerns for stakeholders like workers. The topic remains fraught since in general only shareholders get to elect directors. Also, on Aug. 28 a group of Republican U.S. state treasurers and other financial officers criticized the statement as distracting companies from their goal of earning returns.
Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston
Editing by Matthew Lewis
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