Activism fails to emerge
at US annual meetings
by
Neil Stewart
Shareholder activism and Rule 452 changes
fail to make waves
The 2010 annual meeting season
was meant to unleash a shower of trouble on companies, from activism
provoked by the financial crisis to problems bringing in the retail vote.
But according to a report issued by BNY Mellon Shareowner Services, the 2010
season was more notable for what didn’t happen: activism didn’t rise, Rule
452 didn’t harm director elections, and meetings didn’t get long and
complicated.
The conclusions come from BNY Mellon’s internal survey of 460 client annual
meetings, covering the type and number of proxy proposals, the impact of
changes to voting rules and the use of proxy solicitors. A summary of the
results is
available to download from BNY Mellon.
‘When all was said and done, we were a little bit surprised,’ admits Robert
Folinus, vice president and meeting services product manager for BNY Mellon.
‘All of us in the industry expected to see things happen differently.’
In the wake of the financial crisis, with increased media scrutiny on
executive pay, say-on-pay proposals and new compensation, discussion and
analysis disclosures, a high level of activism was predicted. Yet proposals
were kept to a minimum, with a total of three or fewer proposals at 68
percent of the companies in BNY Mellon’s study.
Only 11 percent had more than five proposals. Besides votes for directors,
now classified as non-routine under Rule 452, there were very few other
non-routine proposals, and only 15 proposals failed out of the total of
1,000 at meetings BNY Mellon supported.
The biggest surprise was how little Rule 452 changes affected proxy voting.
Companies feared that eliminating the broker vote in director elections
could make it hard for them to reach a quorum or elect directors. As it
turned out, BNY Mellon saw a drop in the vote for directors at only 35 of
the hundreds of companies it studied. The average drop was 11 percent of
votes cast, which didn’t have any real impact on the outcome of the votes.
Out of all the possible reasons behind activism’s no-show and the Rule 452
anti-climax, BNY Mellon says it was companies’ careful planning that kept
the peace. ‘Many companies made sure their meetings were compliant, just
covering the essentials, while staying away from things that might cause
controversy. This led to a smoother season overall,’ Folinus says.
However, Folinus warns that a peaceful 2010 is no indicator of things to
come. ‘In fact, I have every belief that 2011 is going to be different,’ he
says, pointing to last week’s proxy mechanics concept release from the SEC
and the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. ‘Later this year we’re going to
see how all this impacts our clients and then we will be able to make our
prognostications,’ he adds.
While BNY Mellon has always collected information about the annual meetings
it works on as a vote tabulator and inspector of elections, this is the
first time it has taken a systematic approach to collecting data. Folinus
says next year’s study should yield clear comparisons and identify trends
between annual meeting seasons.
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