2017 Shareholders’ Meetings Season Workshop promotes learning opportunities
Held on June 13, the event addressed the experiences of the Brazilian capital market’s participants and the new distance voting process, implemented for the first time this year by the largest Brazilian companies. Apart from sharing their experiences, the participants suggested possible improvements to be adopted by the regulator for the next years.
The foreign speaker Andrew Gerbelin, from Glass Lewis, a leading global voting consulting firm, explained how the time lapse brings about a significant disparity between the proposals and the candidates nominated in the proxy form and those that shareholders can actually vote in because of the changes made after the issue of the document. This happens because foreign investors should express their opinions through proxy voting and submit their votes 30 days before the shareholders’ meeting date, period during which other proposals are included in the form.
Another demand addressed by the investors during the event is the transparency in the voting records. According to the institutional investors, very often they are not sure whether their votes were counted. In addition to that, as they do not know how other investors are voting, they cannot interact and align their votes for the best final result for the companies.
According to the market’s participants, the excessive bureaucracy as to the necessary documents and the long time required for the inclusion of candidates in the proxy form inhibit minority shareholders from voting.
On the other hand, the speaker Bárbara Rejani, from Claritas, believes that the proxy voting has helped reduce the operating cost for minority shareholders. “It’s much easier and shareholders have to send less documents to the companies,” she says
On June 1, the B3 held a specific workshop to introduce the first experiences with the proxy voting. Click here to watch the video of the event.
Check below the program of the event organized by Amec and access the speakers’ presentations:
2017 SHAREHOLDERS’ MEETINGS SEASON WORKSHOP
São Paulo, June 13, 2017
2 pm 2:15 pm Opening
- Mauro Rodrigues da Cunha, Amec
2:15 pm 3:35 pm 1st Panel – Challenges in the 2017 Shareholders’ Meetings
- Bárbara Rejani, Claritas
- Jorge Ricca, BB DTVM – click here for the presentation
- Luzia Hirata, Santander Asset Management
- Marcelo Gasparino, Geração Futuro
3:35 pm 4 pm 1st Presentation – Conclusions about the B3 event
- Tiago Isaac, B3 – click here for the presentation
4 pm 4:20 pm Coffee Break
4:20 pm 5 pm 2nd Presentation – The Proxy Advisors’ View
- Andrew Gerbelin, Glass Lewis – click here for the presentation
5 pm 6:20 pm 2nd Panel – The Electronic Vote – Suggestions for Improvements
- Daniel Ferreira, Mesquita Pereira
- Luis Claudio Pereira and Douglas Marcos da Cruz, Bradesco
6:20 pm 6:40 pm Closing – CVM – Lessons Learned and the future of the CVM Instruction 561
- Claudia Hassler, SDM, CVM
