Asset managers are avoiding ESG shareholder resolutions The biggest shareholders need to lead on proxy voting and public engagement, a leading NGO says. Some of the world’s largest asset managers are not using their proxy voting rights to support sustainable progress in their investee companies, despite publicly committing to responsible investment. Responsible investment NGO ShareAction […]
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The Indian proxy season for 2017 represented a tipping point for shareholder activism, according to corporate governance advisory service, InGovern with institutional investors now prepared to take on company boards. In its overview of this year’s season, which begins in January and peaks in September in India, InGovern said the number of cases where shareholders […]
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Investors are increasingly pushing some of the world’s biggest companies to commit to reducing their impact on the global forests, according to an analysis of shareholder resolutions put forward at US AGMs. The report was published by the Global Canopy Programme, a think tank aiming to accelerate a transition to a deforestation free economy. Analysis of […]
Read MoreThe New York City Pension Funds have filed new shareholder resolutions in their continued campaign to get investors the right to nominate a director to the boards of US companies. The Boardroom Accountability Project, which was launched in November 2014, has already seen 115 companies compared with six originally, adopt a bylaw which gives shareholders owning 3 percent […]
Read MoreWhen Dale Wannen of US investment advisor Sustainvest Asset Management wanted Irish pharmaceuticals company Actavis to publish an annual sustainability report he didn’t just write a letter to the directors, or lobby a regulator for a rule change, he took matters into his own hands and proposed a shareholder resolution.
Read MoreThe Australian federal government has mooted a draft bill which, if it succeeds, will remove the right of a 100 shareholders to call an extraordinary general meeting (EGM). According to the announcement from Mathias Cormann, acting assistant treasurer, the draft bill contains proposed changes to the Australian corporations act that are aimed at removing “unnecessary […]
Read MoreThe upcoming AGM of Deutsche Bank AG is looming large in many shareholders minds now. With the long running succession planning debate at the company leading some proxy advisors to publicly recommend opposition to ratification of the supervisory board acts, combined with countermotions tabled for director elections, there’s plenty for shareholders to consider. The ability to […]
Read MoreEuro investor activism at US firms continues International pension funds appear ready to continue to pressure U.S. companies to appoint independent board chairs, a leadership structure now commonly adopted by European boards but still relatively rare in the United States. According to research by Proxy Governance only 25% of U.S. companies now have an independent board chair. […]
Read MoreAfter setting a new high-water mark in 2009 in terms of US shareholder proposals (more than five dozen) and support (one majority vote and three others exceeding 40% of the votes cast), proponents of climate change resolutions are gearing up for an even bigger 2010 proxy season. Close to 100 proposals, spanning more than a […]
Read MoreEarly indications are that the 2010 proxy season will be at least as busy, if not more so, than last year when more than 640 shareholder resolutions were voted on at U.S. companies writes Mike Ryan of Manifest’s US partners, ProxyGovernance. Labor unions, public pension funds and other corporate governance advocates, having seen support for […]
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