Investment Association register of AGM votes 2018

On 30 August the Investment Association published its analysis of voting in the 2018 AGM season. Company resolutions are added to the register if they fail to achieve an 80% vote in favour.
The picture is rather confused. For all listed companies the number of resolutions not achieving the hurdle dropped from 68 in 2017 to 61 in 2017. But the number in the FTSE 100 doubled from 9 to 18.

Most of the “failed” failed votes were for the advisory vote on remuneration implementation. Only 12 in total concerned the remuneration policy. This is remarkable in a year when many companies would have been coming back to shareholders to renew the policy since the three year validity would now be up.

The poor showing of a relatively small number of FTSE 100 companies is indicative of the intention of institutional investors to go after the high profile cases – WPP, Persimmon, BT. It is no indication of a general breakdown in corporate governance: indeed the improved general voting this year suggests practice is improving.

For more information contact damien.knight@mm-k.com

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