With effect from today, we will explain all our votes against the board at shareholder meetings. In addition, we publish an asset manager perspective and four position papers to clarify our views as an owner.
We provide a rationale for our voting to be transparent with companies on what we expect from them. In most cases, we will support the board’s recommendation. However, when we vote against the board, we will provide a principled rationale for our voting. We will publish the rationale in our voting solution one day after the shareholder meeting.
“We wish to be transparent with companies and the market so they can better understand our voting. Our starting point is to support the companies’ board. Therefore, it is particularly relevant for companies and the general public to understand why we in some cases vote against the board”, says Chief Corporate Governance Officer Carine Smith Ihenacho.
Our public voting guidelines form the basis for how we vote. Today, we also publish four position papers that clarify our views on board independence, multiple share classes, shareholder rights in equity issuances, and related-party transactions.
In addition, we publish an asset manager perspective on the voting process, which describes key elements in an efficient voting process and how the most important stakeholders can contribute to necessary improvements. As a shareholder, we want our vote to count in all companies.
“As a global investor, we depend on an efficient voting process. We see that in several markets, there are still manual voting processes, several layers of intermediaries, and a lack of electronic solutions. We depend on issuers, investors, business participants and regulators cooperating to make relevant information available, propose improvements, develop good electronic voting solutions, and modernise frameworks”, Ihenacho says.
Press contact:
Marthe Skaar
Head of Communications and External Relations (acting)
Tel. no.: +47 92617663
E-mail: press@nbim.no