On February 3, 2020, Olshan’s Shareholder Activism Group issued a letter of comment to the Securities and Exchange Commission in response to its proposed amendments to the federal proxy rules released on November 5, 2019 that would condition the availability of certain existing exemptions from the information and filing requirements of the proxy rules for proxy voting advice businesses upon compliance with additional disclosure and procedural requirements. The scope of our comments is limited to the severe shortcomings of the proposed rules in terms of their practical application in the “real world” of a proxy contest. We have drawn upon our vast experience in advising on hundreds of contested solicitations to highlight the flaws inherent to the proposed rules.
Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”), the leading proxy voting advisory firm, recently released its 2020 proxy voting guidelines updates for the U.S. and other jurisdictions (effective for meetings on or after February 1, 2020) following its annual global benchmark policy survey and comment period that ran from July 22, 2019 to October 18, 2019. ISS addressed various topics in its updated guidelines, which included three guideline revisions that are relevant to shareholder activism in the U.S. and are the focus of this client alert.
On October 26, 2016, the Commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission voted 2-1 to propose to require universal proxy ballots in contested elections. Proponents of universal proxies believe that the current federal proxy regime makes it too difficult for shareholders to mix and match their votes among all candidates, thereby disenfranchising shareholders and undermining corporate governance in the United States. Universal proxies would include all management and dissident nominees on one proxy card from which shareholders would vote. Under the current rules and proxy voting mechanics, a shareholder who desires to split votes generally must attend the shareholders meeting and vote by ballot.