On March 29, the Association of Capital Market Investors – Amec - published a Notice to the Market endorsing the proposal presented by Vale’s controlling shareholders. The ultimate objective is the unification of all classes of shares and the eventual migration to BM&F Bovespa’s Novo Mercado special listing segment. Amec’s Technical Commission analyzed the deal and the members present in the meeting were unanimous in considering it positive.

On March 24, the Association of Capital Market Investors – Amec – published a Notice to the Market to encourage institutional investors to participate in Shareholders Meetings through the distance voting system, a possibility created by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission – CVM – by means of the Instruction 561. But while interacting with its members, the association has noticed some difficulties as to the use of the new proxy card.

Glass Lewis, one of the world’s most respected proxy advisory companies, has incorporated several aspects mentioned in Amec’s President Letter 08/2016 in its 2017 voting policy. Glass Lewis’ voting policy document is directed at institutional investors from all over the world.

In a dramatic victory for investors, independent members and the good corporate governance practices, Karina Litack, independent board member of the Italian oil company ENI, was found not guilty by Milan’s Office of the Attorney General in the lawsuit filed against her. The matter had been dragging for several months and seemed like a true conspiracy. Amid accusations of corruption against the company’s Board of Directors, Ms. Litack was implicated in a case of “alleged defamation against the company” by an obscure attorney from Sicilia. More information about the case can be found in this article published by The Economist magazine.

The International Corporate Governance Network – ICGN, which gathers investors with assets under management of approximately USD 28 trillion, published a new document last month advocating the maintenance of ownership structures based on the “one share one vote” principle. The initiative reinforces another similar viewpoint statement issued in April 2015 and is a result of a “wave” identified by its members as to differential ownership structures, despite empirical evidences and the institutional investors’ view in favor of the traditional structure.

In another initiative about the one share one vote structure, the Singapore Exchange started a public consultation to listen to the opinion of market participants on whether it should ban the listing of companies with dual share class structures.

As mentioned in Amec’s March newsletter, the Council of Institutional Investors called upon the world’s leading indices to not include Snap in their respective indices. According to CII, non-voting shares are not real shares, reason why they should not be included in the benchmarks – what would force investors to buy them, mainly the passives or the closet indexers.

Amec’s members are entitled to a discount to register in ANBIMA’s 9^th Congress of Investment Funds. The event, to take place in São Paulo on May 10 and 11, will include presentations and debates about the challenges facing the funds industry, technological trends, sustainability and other topics that can impact the future of the markets.