INSTITUTIONAL Shareholder Services has posted their U.S. mid-season proxy season review of preliminary voting results on hot-button shareholder proposals — and it finds that there’s still a big appetite for change.
The most-watched issue this season is say-on-pay, resolutions requesting companies to put their compensation practices up to a non-binding annual shareholder referendum.
ISS is tracking 60 such proposals and says that according to preliminary results, support for these proposals has averaged 42.5% over 18 meetings thus far. That is higher than the 40% average support attracted at seven meetings last year. A say-on-pay proposal at Blockbuster reportedly gained 57% support.
These results suggest there is widespread support for an annual shareholder vote on executive pay, something shareholders in the UK, the Netherlands and Australia take for granted.
There’s much more on this and other proposals on ISS’s Corporate Governance Blog

