| James Kon |
MINORITY investors in Brunei Darussalam are now able to have a better peace of mind with the introduction of the Protecting Minority Investors Reform on Thursday.
The new regulations spearheaded by Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam (AMBD), with amendments made to the Companies Act and tighter execution of corporate governance, will better protect minority investors against the misuse of corporate assets by directors for their personal gain through improved shareholder rights.
“This latest initiative will also help boost Brunei Darussalam’s World Bank Ease of Doing Business (EODB) rankings,” Yusof bin Haji Abdul Rahman, the Managing Director of AMBD highlighted during a press conference on Thursday at the Ministry of Finance building.
He also revealed that “AMBD has been appointed as the champion for Protecting Minority Investors Indicators (PMI) under the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, with the objective of strengthening protection for minority investors in the country”.
With this in mind, Yusof added, “AMBD has established a taskforce with members comprising representatives from AMBD, the Registry of Companies and Business Names (ROCBN) under the MoF, Darussalam Assets Sdn Bhd, and the Brunei Darussalam’s Law Society. This taskforce has reviewed the Companies Act and is focused on enhancing protection to minority investors, especially in the area of Conflict of Interests and Rights of shareholders in corporate governance.”
The taskforce, he stated further, “has made an assessment and comparison of Brunei Darussalam’s performance under the PMI indicators with those of Singapore and New Zealand, considering that both countries are ranked number one for the PMI index.”
Yusof bin Haji Abdul Rahman (C), the Managing Director of Autoriti Monetari Brunei Darussalam during a press conference. – JAMES KON
As part of a familiarisation programme on the amendment to the Act, Yusof said “AMBD with the cooperation of ROCBN, has held a workshop with important stakeholders, including the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), a number of law firms, and other companies.”
The new initiative is important for Brunei Darussalam in its quest to modernise its law infrastructure and improve its position in the World Bank’s EODB rankings.
The PMI is one of the indicators under the World Bank’s EODB rankings. It measures the strength of minority shareholder protections against corporate assets misuse by directors, as well as shareholder rights, governance safeguards and corporate transparency requirements that reduce the risk of abuse.
The essence of the new reforms is that the basic rights of shareholders are to be specifically enshrined in the Brunei Companies Act as inalienable rights which cannot be overridden by a company’s rules and regulations.
Examples of these are: the right of all share-holders to attend and vote at general meetings; the provision of a longer period of notice for meetings to shareholders; relaxing of shareholder thresholds; and the inclusion of certain additional matters specially reserved for shareholder approval, rather board approval alone.
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