LONDON ¨C A call by Donald Trump to ditch quarterly corporate reporting has received cautious support from an unlikely source: international investors pushing business to do more on longer-term sustainability issues, many lambasted by the U.S. president.
Trump on Monday called for companies to shift to six-monthly updates, adding his voice to those of business heavyweights including Berkshire Hathaway Chair Warren Buffett and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who have argued in the past that short-termism harms the economy.
Abandoning quarterly reporting would see the world¡¯s biggest economy and the deepest capital market join a global shift away from the practice and could help those investors pushing boards to do more on issues such as climate change that are set to increasingly impact corporate value. ¡°Responsible investment people have never been advocates of quarterly reporting, since it tends to encourage a greater focus on trading and less on good ownership,¡± said David Pitt-Watson, corporate governance expert and Fellow at Cambridge University¡¯s Judge Business School.
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