Christoph Van der Elst

Corporate governance op het snijvlak tussen wetgeving en aanbeveling: een praktijkstudie

WP 2005-03

In December 2004 the Belgian Corporate Governance Commission issued a new Belgian Code. The Code recommends listed entities to inform the shareholders and investors about their corporate governance practices at the 2005 general meeting, although companies only have to report their compliance from 2006 onwards. This paper analysed the information disclosed in the annual report, the agenda of the general meeting 2005 and the companies' websites. A large majority of the companies already comply with the majority of the recommendations of the new Code. However, it remains an open question whether companies will disclose detailed information about the remuneration of the management. A more detailed analyses shows that the regulatory framework does not guarantee the publication of transparent information.