What price corporate governance? Anything between $6 million and $10 million, on a good day.
This is what it takes to bring corporate wrong-doers to court, according to the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau and the Securities and Futures Commission.
The two bodies recently put out a consultation paper on a derivative action - notably seeking views on such recourse being taken on investors' behalf by the SFC.
In other words, the prospect of enabling minority shareholders to have their day in court.
A derivative action awards any damages to the company, not the shareholders.
Needless to say there were two pages dedicated to the topic of funding the proposal. If the SFC goes ahead with derivative actions, it needs to raise more cash.
One idea being touted is to allow the SFC a cut of any damages - up to 30 per cent.