All Proxy Access Rule articles
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Blog
NYC Comptroller Expands Proxy Access Demands
On behalf of New York City’s public pension funds, Comptroller Scott Stringer has announced the expansion of an initiative that uses shareholder resolutions to pressure companies to adopt meaningful proxy access bylaws. In 2016, 72 companies will be asked to enact a 3 percent ownership threshold for the ability to ...
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Blog
SEC Rethinks Proxy Exclusions, Takes Pro-Shareholder Approach
The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance has clarified its application of Rule 14a-8(i)(9), which permits the exclusion of shareholder proposals that conflict with the company’s own proposals. After months of debate, the SEC stopped issuing these no-action letters for the 2015 proxy season while it reviewed the process. Moving ...
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Blog
SEC Will Consider Universal Proxy Ballot Rulemaking
Image: SEC Chair Mary Jo White said in a speech Thursday that the agency will, in time, propose rulemaking to allow universal proxy ballots—single proxy cards that list both management’s and opponents’ nominees in contested director elections. White says a date has not yet been set for the proposal. More ...
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Blog
Trade Groups Tell SEC: Reverse Course on No-Action Policy
A coalition of 17 business groups is asking the SEC to reinstate its practice of giving guidance about shareholder proposals that conflict with other proposals sponsored by management—and hinted that the agency’s new policy of silence on the subject may violate the law. The complaint is the latest salvo in ...
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Blog
SEC Retreats on Proxy Access No-Action Letters
The SEC has reversed course on an earlier no-action letter that let Whole Foods thwart a shareholder proposal for greater proxy access, which essentially paves the way for many more such shareholder proposals to come this proxy season—including 75 filed by New York City’s pension fund. The SEC will now ...
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Blog
Oil Companies Seek to Bypass Proxy Access Proposals
In advance of 2015 annual meetings, Marathon Oil and Cabot Oil are seeking the SEC’s blessing for plans to exclude proxy access proposals submitted on behalf of New York City’s pension funds. They cite a recent decision to grant no-action relief to Whole Foods, where the grocery chain sought to ...
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Blog
SEC Sides With Whole Foods in Proxy Access Battle
Image: The SEC has sided with Whole Foods in a closely watched effort to submit its own proxy access proposal at the annual meeting. The move supersedes a proposal sought by activist shareholder Jim McRitchie, who wanted to give proxy access to any group of shareholders that collectively owns at ...
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Article
Behind the Latest Push to Win Proxy Access for Shareholders
Image: Title: StringerThree years after a lawsuit scuttled the SEC’s proxy access rule, a new push is underway to give shareholders the right to nominate directors directly on the proxy. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, on behalf of the $160 billion New York City pension funds, recently submitted proxy ...