LONDON – A call by Donald Trump to ditch quarterly corporate reporting has received cautious support from an unlikely source: international investors pushing business to do more on longer-term sustainability issues, many lambasted by the US president.

Trump on Monday called for companies to shift to six-monthly updates, adding his voice to those of business heavyweights including Berkshire Hathaway Chair Warren Buffett and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who have argued in the past that short-termism harms the economy.

Abandoning quarterly reporting would see the world’s biggest economy and the deepest capital market join a global shift away from the practice and could help those investors pushing boards to do more on issues such as climate change that are set to increasingly impact corporate value.

“Responsible investment people have never been advocates of quarterly reporting, since it tends to encourage a greater focus on trading and less on good ownership,” said David Pitt-Watson, corporate governance expert and Fellow at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.

Sustainability issues have been under attack by Trump since he began his second term earlier this year, though, including through a move to nix a rule that would have pushed companies to disclose climate-related data.

For many investors in Europe and elsewhere, that data is exactly what they want to see.

“We want companies to consider the material impact of their strategies on a long-term view and plan accordingly to mitigate any sustainability-related risks, so if moving away from quarterly reporting can help achieve this without impacting transparency and disclosure then it could be positive,” said Nick Duncan, Sustainable Investment director at investor Aberdeen, which manages more than 500 billion pounds ($682 billion).

“Especially if the reduced quarterly reporting burden encouraged companies to maintain or enhance the current level of sustainability-related reporting.”

That aside, the move had a clear win in that it would reduce the amount of time companies spend in ‘closed period’ ahead of results – typically a month – during which investors are not allowed to speak with them, he added.

Changing the securities law that stretches back decades would mark a sea-change for the world’s biggest capital market, where more than 4,000 companies with a combined market capitalization of more than $60 trillion trade publicly.

Overseas investors have long been used to dealing with six-monthly updates from companies in many European Union countries, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.

Other than the US, China is the biggest equity market still requiring it by law although local stock markets in countries such as Japan and Germany still demand it as a condition of listing, or listing on the premium market.

For investors in Britain – which made the move to interims more than a decade ago, alongside the EU – it had helped bolster sustainability efforts, said Andrew Ninian, director of Stewardship, Risk and Tax at The Investment Association, the UK trade body for the investment industry.

“Moving away from mandatory quarterly reporting has given companies greater flexibility to focus on long-term investment decisions, strategy and reporting rather than management of short-term targets.”

Despite that, some investors cautioned action would be needed to shore up investor protections.

“Although semi-annual reporting works in some countries, such as the UK and Australia, there are structural differences that make the US context more challenging,” said Hayley Grafton, Senior Sustainable Investment analyst at UK investor Edentree Investment Management.

Examples of potential gaps include around profit warnings. In Britain, they are treated as regulatory disclosures while in the US, they are not a regulatory requirement and updates can be withheld, she said.

And unlike in Australia, where companies must provide continuous disclosure of material information and are expected to issue trading updates where performance diverges from guidance, the US has no equivalent to this outside earnings guidance.

Despite the need for safeguards, which Grafton said also included monitoring of the impact on transparency and the cost of capital, Pitt-Watson said the move could help sustainability investors.

“As Trump says, the former has knock-on effects distracting management. So a move to half-yearly reporting might support long-term, value-adding management. I think many of us think that is a good thing.” — Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced an agreement between the US and China to keep TikTok operating in the United States, with three sources familiar with the matter saying the deal was similar to one discussed earlier this year.

The agreement requires TikTok’s American assets to be transferred to US owners from China’s ByteDance, potentially resolving a saga that has lingered for nearly a year.

A deal for the popular social media app, which counts 170 million US users, would represent a breakthrough in months-long talks between the two biggest economies as they seek to defuse a wide-ranging trade war that has unnerved global markets.

“We have a deal on TikTok … We have a group of very big companies that want to buy it,” Trump said at a White House briefing, without providing further details. The announcement comes a day before a September 17 deadline to sell or shut down the short video app.

Later in the day the White House extended that deadline until December 16. The White House declined to provide any further details on the agreement with China.

The delay will give ByteDance another 90 days to finalize an agreement to transfer TikTok’s American assets to US owners, suggesting much work needs to be done to close the complex transaction.

The US entity will have an American-dominated board, the Wall Street Journal reported, with one member designated by the US government.

The idea takes a page from a recent national security agreement inked by the Trump administration that allowed Nippon Steel to buy US Steel after allowing the US to name a board member, in addition to having a Golden Share.

Any agreement may require approval by the Republican-controlled Congress, which passed a law in 2024 during the Biden Administration that required TikTok’s divestiture due to fears that its US user data could be accessed by the Chinese government, allowing Beijing to spy on Americans or conduct influence operations through the app.

The basics of the new deal, also similar to April, include that ByteDance will keep the single largest ownership stake at 19.9%, just under a 20% threshold, two of the sources said. The consortium that would hold 80% includes ByteDance’s current shareholders Susquehanna International Group (SIG), General Atlantic, and KKR, as well as new investors such as Andreessen Horowitz. Oracle is also likely to take a stake, and the Wall Street Journal reported that Silver Lake would invest as well.

While the broad terms are expected to remain the same, the sources did say they do not know what the final deal would exactly look like, given the potential for last-minute changes.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday the commercial terms of the deal had, in essence, been done since around March with just a few details left to be ironed out.

“This deal wouldn’t be done without proper safeguards for US national security,” Bessent said. “It seems as though we were also able to meet the Chinese interest.”

CNBC reported Tuesday that the deal is expected to be closed within the next 30 to 45 days, and that the agreement will include existing investors in TikTok’s China-based parent, ByteDance, and new investors.

The details are in line with Reuters’ reporting in April that the deal would spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new company based in the US and majority-owned and operated by US investors.

The Trump administration has declined to enforce the law due to worries it would anger TikTok’s huge user base and disrupt political communications, instead extending the divestiture deadline on three separate occasions.

Trump, who has credited TikTok with helping him win re-election last year and has 15 million followers on his personal account, was expected to extend the deadline for the fourth time. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

TARIFFS AND TIKTOK

A deal for TikTok, which had been in the works in the spring, was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of tariffs on Chinese goods.

Washington has said that TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government.

But the company has said US officials have misstated its ties to China, arguing its content recommendation engine and user data are stored in the US on cloud servers operated by Oracle, while content moderation decisions that affect American users are also made in the US.

CNBC reported on Tuesday that Oracle will keep its cloud deal with TikTok. Reuters reported earlier this year that the White House was working on a plan to tap Oracle, along with a group of outside investors, to control the app’s operations.

As part of the plan, Oracle would have been responsible for addressing national security issues, Reuters had reported.

Oracle shares rose 1.5%.

A framework agreement was reached by officials from both countries on Monday. A final confirmation on the deal is expected on Friday in a call between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump said in March that his administration was in touch with four different groups on TikTok’s sale. Microsoft, Amazon, billionaire Frank McCourt and a consortium led by the founder of OnlyFans have been among the bidders, according to reports. — Reuters