New research from Vancouver’s Shareholder
Association for Research and Education (SHARE) finds that shareholders are increasingly voting against management on executive compensation issues at Canadian firms.
SHARE has released the results of its latest proxy vote survey, which it says shows that “Canadian shareholders are increasingly critical of the excessive nature of executive pay”; highlighted by an overwhelming vote against Barrick Gold’s executive pay package last year and strong shareholder opposition at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. and Canadian Pacific Railway.
“More and more shareholders are voting against executive compensation packages,” said Catherine Smith, author of the 2013 survey report and manager of proxy voting services at SHARE. “Although the majority of shareholders continue to vote with management, votes against executive compensation packages are on the rise. The average vote against compensation at Canadian companies was 10% in 2013, compared to 8% in 2012 and 6% in 2011.”
SHARE says that as executive pay packages come up for shareholder votes in the next couple of months, “boards would be wise to pay attention to the results” of its latest research.
The survey examines the voting decisions of investment managers and proxy voting services on issues that were particularly controversial or that raised critical corporate governance issues. The latest edition of the survey looks at the voting records of 40 firms with combined Canadian equity holdings of more than $70 billion in proxy votes last year.
The survey is a project of SHARE, the Columbia Institute, and Fonds de solidarité (FTQ).