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August 19, 2003
Corporate Governance Ratings Take Different Approaches to Produce Similar Results
by William Baue
GovernanceMetrics International rates corporate governance in relation to other companies, while
Institutional Shareholder Services rates in relation to market indexes.
SocialFunds.com --
Late last month, GovernanceMetrics
International (GMI), an independent corporate governance rating agency based in New York City,
released its ratings for more than 1,000 US companies and more than 600 companies from fourteen
other countries. Seventeen companies, including ChevronTexaco (ticker: CVX), ExxonMobil (XOM), Eastman Kodak (EK), McDonald's (MCD), Occidental
Petroleum (OXY),
and Praxair (PX)
earned perfect scores of 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10) in GMI's overall global ratings.
 This does not mean that these companies
have "perfect" corporate governance in an absolute sense, but rather that they have best practice
on governance, according to GMI. Whereas other ratings measure corporate governance, social, or
environmental performance against a set standard or benchmark, GMI rates each company's governance
in relation to other companies' governance.
"We wanted to capture the reality of the
marketplace rather than some theoretical gold standard in the belief that institutions who are our
subscribers want to deal in the real world," said Gavin Anderson, GMI's CEO. "The bar is set by
companies that embrace the highest standard of behavior."
GMI assigns 16 different ratings
to companies, including a global rating that compares each company to the entire universe of 1,600
companies and a home market rating that compares companies to their national compatriots. Ratings
also compare companies to their same-sector peers.
"Our system utilizes asymmetric
geometric scoring (AGS), which in effect magnifies the record of 'outliers,'" said Mr. Anderson.
"This includes both those with the very best practices, who are then rewarded more, or those with
the worst, who are penalized accordingly."
Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), which provides
institutional investors with proxy voting and corporate governance services, launched a research
tool in June 2002 that similarly rates governance. However, ISS's Corporate Governance Quotient
(CGQ) rates in relation to set benchmarks, not to other companies' corporate governance
performance. ISS also says that its system accurately reflects reality.
"We peg our
ratings to market indexes and industry peer groups because that's how analysts typically look at
the data," said Cheryl Gustitus, vice president of communications at ISS.
The CGQ rates
more than 5,400 US companies and 2,000 non-US companies in relation to their appropriate
benchmarks, such as the S&P 500 and the MSCI World Index. While CGQ analyzes 61 data points, GMI
analyzes almost ten times more, or 600 data points.
GMI and CGQ divide their metrics into
a similar number of categories (seven and eight, respectively) that overlap on such issues as
executive and director compensation, takeover provisions, and ownership. However, GMI includes a
specific category for corporate behavior and social responsibility, issues that CGQ leaves
untouched.
GMI scores companies relationally not only at the final stage of evaluation,
but throughout the rating process as well. As an example, a hypothetical "HighRated Company" could receive a 6.0 rating in shareholder rights in its home
market yet still receive a perfect 10.0 overall home market rating. That is because a 6.0 rating
in the shareholder rights subcategory actually compares very favorably to other companies'
performance, and therefore does not bring down the overall rating.
Considering the degree
of controversy surrounding some of the corporate governance practices of companies such as
ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil, investors may be surprised at their "perfect" scores. Both companies
have CEOs that also hold the position of chairman of the board, a practice that many corporate
governance advocates spurn.
"While we believe that the chairman and CEO roles should be
separate, the fact that ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco haven't split those roles doesn't necessarily
represent a huge risk to the investor from a governance perspective, with all the other metrics
considered," said Mr. Anderson.
Interestingly, GMI and CGQ's different rating systems
sometimes generate consistent findings.
"We have a relatively high rating on ExxonMobil
as well," Ms. Gustitus told SocialFunds.com.
ExxonMobil earned a score of 92.5 out of
100 in relation to the S&P 500, and a 99 against its peer group.
"The company has made
substantial changes in their governance practices; before it made those changes, it didn't see
those scores," Ms. Gustitus explained.
©
SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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