The Dutch government is going to tighten its system of corporate governance and lower the threshold for the filing of shareholdings in Dutch companies, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The first threshold for stakes that have to be reported with the market regulator AFM will be reduced to 3 percent from currently 5 percent soon.
In addition the cabinet will investigate the possibility to force shareholders to report every change in their holdings as small as 1 percent. The decision arrives amid a lively debate on the influence of hedge funds in the Netherlands as a number of Dutch companies have recently been targeted by activist shareholders.
The Netherland's biggest bank, ABN Amro agreed to be taken over by Barclays and faced a rival bid from a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland after a letter from British hedge fund TCI, pressuring the bank to sell parts to boost shareholder returns.
Dutch industrial group Stork has battled hedge funds Centaurus and Paulson in court after the funds tried to fire the supervisory board to force a change in strategy.
The same hedge funds forced the Dutch food retailer Ahold to put its US Foodservice unit up for sale in 2006. The ministry also said that it will create additional requirements for managers to disclose their allowances related to an acquisition of their company.