Tag: proxy access proposal

Accounting and AuditingCorporate GovernanceExecutive Compensation

BlackRock issues proxy voting guidelines for 2018 proxy season

As discussed in this PubCo post, BlackRock has recently issued its 2018 Proxy Voting Guidelines for U.S. Securities.  Because BlackRock is reportedly the largest asset management firm (with $6.3 trillion under management), its voting guidelines will matter to more than a few companies.  And BlackRock takes its proxy voting seriously. With the growth in index investing, CEO Laurence Fink has argued, asset managers’ responsibilities of engagement and advocacy have increased, given that asset managers cannot simply sell the shares of companies about which they have doubts if those companies are included in index funds.

/ February 13, 2018
Corporate GovernanceSecurities

NYC Comptroller submits proxy access proposals to 72 companies for 2016

by Cydney Posner As noted in TheCorporateCounsel.net blog, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has once again submitted, on behalf of a number of NYC pension funds, a raft of shareholder proposals for proxy access as part of the Comptroller’s continuing Boardroom Accountability Project.  The list of the 72 companies targeted this […]

/ January 12, 2016
Corporate GovernanceSecurities

Corp Fin issues new SLB providing guidance on Rule 14a-8 exclusions for “conflicting proposals” and “ordinary business”

by Cydney Posner Corp Fin today posted Staff Legal Bulletin 14H providing guidance on two key issues regarding shareholder proposals under Rule 14a-8: the scope and application of Rule 14a-8(i)(9) (the exclusion for conflicting proposals); and the scope and application of Rule 14a-8(i)(7) (the exclusion for ordinary business) in light of Trinity […]

/ October 22, 2015
Accounting and AuditingCorporate GovernanceSecurities

Shareholder proposal regarding audit committee composition

by Cydney Posner As noted in this article from Compliance Week, the Corp Fin staff have refused to issue no-action relief to Citigroup agreeing that it could exclude from its proxy statement a proposal from the prolific John Chevedden regarding audit committee composition. It may be worth noting because, while the […]

/ March 2, 2015
Corporate GovernanceSecurities

Corp Fin Director Higgins shares his thoughts on Rule 14a-8(i)(9), the exclusion for conflicting proposals

by Cydney Posner At a PLI conference yesterday on Corporate Governance, Corp Fin Director Keith Higgins gave us a preview of the Division’s thinking about how to address the issues that have arisen recently with respect to Rule 14a-8(i)(9), which allows a company to exclude from its proxy statement a shareholder proposal […]

/ February 11, 2015
Corporate GovernanceLitigationSecurities

Kerfuffle over “conflicting proposal” exclusion: what does it mean for pending shareholder proposals?

by Cydney Posner As we described in our last post on the saga of James McRitchie’s proxy access proposal submitted to Whole Foods Market, Inc., the SEC staff had granted the no-action request of Whole Foods, confirming that the company could omit McRitchie’s proposal from its proxy statement. That proposal would have […]

/ January 20, 2015