BlackRock Backs Limits on Listings With Separate Share Classes
- Asset manager backs trade group’s petition to stock exchanges
- Investor advocates say change would keep firms accountable
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BlackRock Inc. and T. Rowe Price Group Inc. are backing a push to restrict a type of stock-exchange listing that investor advocates say limits shareholders’ ability to hold companies accountable.
Dual-class stock structures that can bolster founders’ control by denying or diluting the voting power of other shareholders should expire within seven years of an initial public offering, the Council of Institutional Investors said Wednesday in a petition to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Companies would revert to one-share, one-vote unless shareholders vote to extend the separate classes, CII said in the petition, which was endorsed by BlackRock, T. Rowe Price and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.