A single-point agenda

As companies enter the new financial year, it is worth pausing and looking at the lessons that the just completed year has had to offer, and what will be on the agenda for the coming year

Look at IL&FS, the carnage of bank balance sheets and the pledged share saga currently playing out, and this will be the year governance issues become central to debt investors. It is easy to forget that lenders are as affected by governance failure as are equity investors. After all, it is equity investors who get to vote on board appointments, related party transactions, ESOP schemes, capital allocation, even borrowings themselves. Further share price movements are far more spectacular than the basis point change in bond prices, so it is easy to assume that it's the equity investors who bear the