ABSTRACT

Shareholder activism has gained recognition globally, favoring greater strides and relegating the days of shareholders giving up and selling their shares to express their dissatisfaction. However, a proper legal and regulatory framework is required to formalize and promote the concept of shareholder activism to achieve positive results. Hence, the purpose of this research was to firstly investigate the perception of banks’ executives on this concept in Mauritius and to seek the level of adoption and practice of shareholder activism within banks. Secondly, this research aimed at suggesting recommendations to Mauritian stakeholders in order to enhance the legal and regulatory framework surrounding shareholder activism. A survey in the form of a questionnaire and an interview was conducted with banks’ executives, and a comparative study was also carried out on the relevant Mauritian laws and the corresponding legal and regulatory framework of the UK and South Africa each. The research found that shareholder activism is being moderately practiced by banks’ shareholders due to the inability to devise proposals on managerial issues. Consequently, this research recommends the adoption of a shareholder’s governance code, the establishment of a shareholder’s forum, reinforcement of shareholders’ proposals and the formation of a national commission to support shareholder activism.

摘要

股东激进主义已在全球范围内获得认可，支持取得更大进步，并淡化了股东放弃和出售股份以表达不满的日子。然而，需要适当的法律和监管框架来规范和推广股东激进主义的概念，以取得积极的成果。因此，本研究的目的是首先调查毛里求斯银行高管对这一概念的看法，并了解银行内部股东激进主义的采用和实践程度。其次，本研究旨在向毛里求斯利益相关者提出建议，以加强围绕股东激进主义的法律和监管框架。以问卷调查和访谈的形式对银行高管进行了调查，还对毛里求斯的相关法律与英国、南非相应的法律和监管框架进行了比较研究。研究发现，由于无法就管理问题提出建议，银行股东的股东激进主义程度较低。因此，本研究建议采用股东治理准则、建立股东论坛、强化股东提案以及成立国家委员会来支持股东积极性。