UK: Lord Mandelson on institutional shareholders and the long-term

Lord Mandelson, the Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, has contributed a short comment article to the FT.com website titled "Britain needs investors for the long-term". In his article, Lord Mandelson states:

[Today] I am holding a roundtable discussion with senior investors, fund managers, company chairmen and chief executives to ask if London can set a new standard for high-quality, long term engagement between investors and company directors.

... In recent years the UK government has carried out a number of significant reforms to the corporate governance regime to encourage the right kind of long-termism among company directors. We need an equivalent focus on the long term among company owners, especially those represented by institutional shareholders, who should naturally take a long-term view.

... Reviews of corporate governance by Sir Christopher Hogg and Sir David Walker have started to pose the right questions about getting the right balance between the short and long term. The UK’s new Stewardship Code, on which the Financial Reporting Council is about to consult, must address them".