A Comparative Analysis of Board Disclosures of Selected Pharmaceuticals Companies of Bangladesh and the UK

Abstract

This research aims to compare the board disclosures in the annual reports of selected pharmaceutical companies in the UK and Bangladesh. The sample consists of 10 purposively selected pharmaceutical companies from both countries. A secondary qualitative research has been held on 10 board issues: board size, board composition, director’s qualification, board training, board independence, board meetings, independent directors, board committees, director’s remuneration and director’s report. The findings indicate that the Bangladesh Security Exchange Commission’s (BSEC) Corporate Governance Notification, 2012 has limited scope compared with the UK Corporate Governance Code, 2014. Selected UK companies are following the UK Corporate Governance Code, 2014 stringently and disclosing all necessary board disclosures in detail manner as per the requirement of the code, whereas none of the sampled Bangladeshi companies are publishing 100% mandatory board disclosures in detailed manner however they still attach a corporate governance compliance certificate in their annual report. The existing corporate governance notification should be improved which will accelerate the extent of mandatory disclosures. The multitude of voluntary disclosure is quite low in Bangladeshi companies compared with UK companies.