Goldman Sachs has become the first Wall Street bank to declare it will not take companies public in the U.S. and Europe unless they have at least one “diverse” candidate on their board — but failed to include Asia, which has the worst record on gender diversity. “Starting on July 1 in the U.S. and Europe, we’re not going to take a company public unless there’s at least one diverse board candidate, with a focus on women,” he told CNBC. AdvertisementMSCI said last December that of 126 companies in its MSCI World index with no female directors, 108 were Japanese and nine were Chinese- or Hong Kong-based. “It is a good step to have at least two or three women on the board.”Goldman made its decision to insist on diverse candidates for IPO boards after its research showed about 60 companies went public with all-male boards in Europe and the U.S. in the past two years, while another 100 went public with only one female board member. FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd. Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 23, 2020 22:18 UTC