On 20 November 2015, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc ("ISS") published an update to its benchmark proxy voting policies in light of the responses received to the October 2015 Consultation paper on changes to ISS UKI Proxy Voting Guidelines.
This update confirms that ISS will make the following changes to its UK and Ireland Proxy Voting Guidelines:
- A disapplication of pre-emption rights for up to 10% of the issued share capital will now be acceptable, provided that the extra 5% above the original 5% is used only for the purposes of an acquisition or a specified capital investment;
- There will be a recommended maximum number of boards on which directors should sit and ISS may recommend voting against the election or re-election of directors who sit on too many boards; and
- ISS' policy on non-audit service fees will be extended to smaller companies. The updated policies will generally be applied for shareholder meetings on or after 1 February 2016.
The update can be found at:
http://www.issgovernance.com/file/policy/executive-summary-of-key-2016-updates-and-policy.pdf
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.