NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite the onset
of the COVID-19 pandemic limiting in-person events and meetings
this proxy season, many companies were able to hold their
shareholder meetings online, with voting participation reaching a
14-year high, according to the annual ProxyPulse™ report released
today. The number of virtual shareholder meetings (VSMs) rose
by over 500% to 1,494 in the first six months alone, compared to
248 during the same period in 2019.1
"Management teams got the job done with little time to prepare
and nimbly switched to online-only meetings," said Chuck Callan, SVP, Regulatory Affairs at
Broadridge. "Shareholders were understanding of the need for a
shift in format and attendance rose online."
"As more shareholders engaged in governance matters, we saw
proxy voting rates hit a 14-year high," according to Paul DeNicola, Principal, PwC's Governance
Insights Center.
Additionally, many institutional investors emphasized the need
for companies to consider environmental, social and governance
(ESG) risks, and notable developments were made in environmental
disclosures and board diversity.
The report, published by Broadridge Financial Solutions,
Inc. (NYSE:BR) and the Governance Insights Center at PwC US,
features voting trends covering the 3,844 public company annual
shareholder meetings held between January 1
and June 30, 2020. The report highlights voting trends over
the past five proxy seasons.
Download the full report here.
Additional Key Takeaways
Directors
- A total of 21,358 directors stood for election this season with
shareholder support, on average, holding steady at 95%. However,
453 directors failed to attain majority support.
ESG, Say-on-Pay, and Political Spending
- There was an increase in the number of shareholder proposals to
440 this past season from 420 the prior season.
- Shareholder support for social and environmental proposals
increased from 25% in 2019 to 27% in 2020.
- Support for say-on-pay declined slightly from 88% in 2019 to
87% in 2020 – the second decline in a row.
- Support for corporate political spending proposals increased
each season over the last five years and rose to 36% in 2020 from
22% in 2016.
VSM Usage and Engagement Varied by Meeting
- 193 of the 1,494 VSMs had a shareholder proposal. These
VSMs had greater attendance, lasted longer, addressed more
questions from shareholders, and had more voting than the 1,301
VSMs for routine meetings. VSMs with shareholder proposals lasted
34 minutes on average, versus 18 minutes for meetings without
shareholder proposals.
About ProxyPulse
The ProxyPulse report is based in part on Broadridge's
processing of shares held in street names, which accounts for more
than 80% of all shares outstanding in U.S. publicly listed
companies. Shareholder voting trends during a proxy season
represent a snapshot in time and may not be predictive of full-year
results.
ProxyPulse is a collaboration between Broadridge, a leading
provider of investor communications solutions, and PwC's Governance
Insights Center, a group that supports directors, executives and
investors with governance knowledge.
Visit ProxyPulse.com to access the full report.
About Broadridge
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR), a $4
billion global Fintech leader, is a leading provider of
investor communications and technology-driven solutions to banks,
broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and corporate issuers.
Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for
over 50 percent of public companies and mutual funds globally, and
processes on average more than U.S.$8 trillion in fixed income and equity
securities trades per day. Broadridge is part of the S&P 500®
Index and employs over 12,000 associates in 17 countries. For more
information about Broadridge, please
visit www.broadridge.com.
About PwC US
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve
important problems. We're a network of firms in 157 countries with
more than 276,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in
assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us
what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.
PwC refers to the US member firm and may sometimes refer to the
PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please
see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.
©2020 PwC. All rights reserved.
To contact media relations, please email us
at mediarelations@broadridge.com
1 Number specifies meetings hosted on Broadridge's
platform.
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SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.