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Voting levels ‘way off’ target levels, says Manifest
CORPORATE governance specialist and proxy voting agency Manifest has reported that voting levels at annual meetings are a long way off hitting the
government's 60pc target.
The Essex-based agency said UK shareholders only averaged voting levels at 48pc after it conducted analysis of over 800
shareholder meetings. Manifest said: "Although voting levels have risen steadily from 42pc in 1997 and 45pc in 1998, the statistics make worrying
reading for those conscientious institutions making every effort to vote in an informed way who could see their votes undermined by the introduction
of mandatory voting." Manifest highlighted that institutions are turning their attention to the smaller companies where overall voting levels for the
FTSE 250 were 51pc compared with 49pc for the FTSE 100. It also reported that EGMs appeared to attract higher levels of dissent with a total of 5.56pc
of votes withheld from management compared with abstentions of only 1.52pc at AGMs. The findings are based on information supplied by 559 quoted
companies, representing 77pc of the FTSE 100 companies and 67pc of the FTSE 250.
Professional Pensions
18 October, 2001
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