The Role of Corporate Governance in the IPO Process: a note

Corporate governance as a coherent notion and independent topic of academic and practitioner interest has developed rapidly in the last ten years. In particular, most countries have seen the publication of vast numbers of regulatory reports outlining best practice in handling the issues that arise from the increased prominence of the governance concept. Although a vast literature exists on the implications of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for financial performance and ownership structure, few investigations have communicated directly with issuing firms and analysed the practical difficulties encountered on a day-to-day basis when a company decides to float. In particular, very few studies have sought to examine what corporate governance changes, if any, are made in the process. This note reports the findings of a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews with practitioners about the changes that are made before and after a sample of IPOs in the UK. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2004.

The Financial Sector and Corporate Governance: the UK case

Post 1992 Cadbury Committee report developments in UK corporate governance provisions are reviewed. The role of institutional investors, and the financial sector as a whole, in corporate governance is considered. Practices in "Continental Europe", the UK and the US are contrasted, along with the roles of banks, strategic investors ("insiders"), institutional investors ("outsiders") and capital markets. To be effective, capital markets must be efficient and competitive and auditing must be reliable. Current EU and US reform proposals are compared and prospects for convergence in corporate governance procedures assessed. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.

Environmental policy, sustainable development, governance mechanisms and environmental performance

We investigate the effects of environmental policy (Climate Change Act – CCA), sustainable development frameworks (Global Reporting Initiative – GRI; UN Global Compact - UNGC) and corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on environmental performance (Carbon Reduction Initiatives – CRIs and Actual Carbon Performance – GHG emissions) of UK listed firms. We use generalised method of moments (GMM) estimation technique to analyse data consisting of 2,245 UK firm-year observations over the 2002-2014 period. First, we find that the CCA has a positive effect on CRIs, and this effect is stronger in better-governed firms. Second, we find that the GRI-based framework is positively associated with CRIs. Third, we find that firms with poor CG structures have lower actual carbon performance compared with their better-governed counterparts. Overall, our evidence suggests that firms can symbolically conform to environmental policy (CCA) and sustainable development frameworks (GRI, UNGC) by engaging in CRIs without necessarily improving actual environmental performance (GHG emissions) substantively

Development and validation of a new Fourier transform infrared spectrometric method for the quantification of urea in creams and ointments

A new Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometric method for the quantification of urea in creams and ointments was developed and validated. The sample was solubilized in a mixture of chloroform/acetonitrile (1/1 v/v) which allows to solubilize the vaseline or other fats as well as urea and water. The solution was examined in a transmission cell with a pathlength of 500 μm provided with NaCI windows. The urea spectrum was obtained by subtraction of the reference solvent mixture spectrum and the reference water spectrum from the sample spectrum. The absorbance of the peak at ±1688 cm-1 was compared to those of calibration standards to quantify urea. The detection limit and the quantification limit (three times and 10 times the noise, respectively) were estimated as 0.4 and 1.3 μg ml-1, respectively. Validation of the method was realized and application of this method to stability tests was done