Gender mix at the top boosts shares

Listed companies with male-only boards have tended to underperform those with women board members over the past 18 months, data company Thomson Reuters has found.

A study based on Thomson Reuters' data on 4,094 companies around the globe, including 60 in Hong Kong and 85 on the mainland, also found that having women on boards might have a influence on the performance of companies' shares.

Companies with women on their boards had, on average, performed better or in line with benchmark indices, such as the MSCI World, over the past 18 months. Those with all-male boards generally underperformed those with more balanced, gender-diverse boards, and their shares prices tended to be more volatile.

"This study suggests that the performance of companies with mixed boards matched or even slightly outperformed companies with boards comprised solely of men, further reinforcing the idea that gender equality in the workplace makes good investment and business sense," said Andre Chanavat, Thomson Reuters' environmental, social and governance product manager.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing will introduce a requirement from September making women on boards a matter of corporate governance. The more than 1,500 companies listed in Hong Kong will need to introduce policies to ensure the make-up of their boards is better balanced - or explain why they have not complied.

Hong Kong lags behind the international market in terms of women on boards, the study found, with 43 per cent of the city's companies having no female board members last year, worse than the 42 per cent in 2011 and the 40 per cent in 2010 and 2009. It is also below the 42 per cent in Singapore last year and the global average of 41 per cent.