Some 31.1% of votes cast at the AGM of Novartis, held in Switzerland on Tuesday, supported the proposal by Ethos and eight other shareholders that the company should provide shareholders with an annual advisory vote on the remuneration report. A further 2.9% of the votes cast were in the form of positive abstentions. In all 33.4%, over one-third of the votes cast, did not follow the management recommendation to vote against.

Ethos, in a press release, stated that, “this result is a strong signal of the shareholders’ will to obtain more rights in setting executive remuneration”.

Turnout at the meeting increased to 49.9% from 41.2% in 2008, in part due to the efforts of the Company and its proxy solicitors to get the vote out in their efforts to ensure the Ethos proposal was defeated. The turnout was more than 7% higher than the average turnout at Swiss meetings as noted by Manifest’s Voting Review 2008.

Further details of the voting and other recent contentious votes are available on Manifest VoteWatch.

Last Updated: 26 February 2009