What better day to sneak out potentially embarrassing news than the busiest company reporting day of the year? The London Stock Exchange has published its thoughts on whether shares with no or few voting rights should end up in the tracker funds of millions of unsophisticated investors. The LSE’s FTSE Russell indexes division has decided that so long as unrestricted shareholders hold 5 per cent of a listed company’s voting rights, this is enough to qualify it for inclusion in its indices. This, apparently, is “a pragmatic compromise” and “draws a principled line in the sand”, says FTSE Russell, whose indices contain $12.5 trillion of shares worldwide. That’s despite the fact that the majority of investors consulted…

Source: The Times July 27, 2017 23:48 UTC