Shareholder Activism Focused on Political Spending and Lobbying

This finding assesses the trends to date in the 2012 proxy season. Data are drawn from the Manhattan Institute’s ProxyMonitor.org database, launched in 2011, which contains all shareholder proposals and shareholder advisory votes on executive compensation, dating back to 2006, for Fortune 200 companies. This finding includes:

• An update on overall shareholder proposal trends;
• A review of 2012 proposals relating to corporate political spending;
• A review of 2012 proposals seeking to separate the chairman and CEO positions; and
• A review of shareholder advisory votes on executive compensation.

The report finds that, in general, activists’ increased energy has not translated into greater support among voting shareholders.

via blogs.law.harvard.edu