In Focus

CII, Public Pension Fund Groups Support Proposed Curbs Investments in China, Seek Added Clarification

In a September 28 letter to the Treasury Department, CII and three public pension fund groups strongly supported the aims of President Biden’s Executive Order curbing U.S. investments in certain advanced technologies and products in China. The letter requested additional clarification regarding outbound investments made by limited partners in private pooled funds and whether the rulemaking, which Treasury has not yet issued, would apply to future investments only. The joint letter from CII, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA), the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) and the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR) responds to the Treasury’s August 9 request for comment in advance of rulemaking to restrict investments in China that involve semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies or artificial intelligence.

CII-REF Report Shows U.S. Dual-class Companies with Classified Boards Underperform the Market

A new report from CII Research and Education Fund (CII-REF) finds that U.S. dual-class companies with classified boards that have been public for five or more years had annualized returns significantly lower than broad stock indices. These companies had an average annualized return of 3.70%, compared to 5.53% for small- and medium-cap U.S. companies and 10.85% for the U.S. total market over the same timeframe. Companies with dual-class structures and classified boards that went public more recently than five years had an annualized return of -22.32% since the date they went public. The full report is available here.