Salle de presse

2017-07-21

Actions collectives portant sur les valeurs mobilières de la Société financière Manuvie

Montréal, le 14 juillet 2017 — Une entente de règlement a été conclue dans le cadre d’une action collective alléguant que la Société financière Manuvie (« SFM ») a faussement représenté la suffisance de ses pratiques de gestion du risque, et a omis de divulguer l’ampleur de l’exposition de la Société aux risques liés au marché des actions et aux taux d’intérêt.

La SFM a accepté de payer 69 000 000 $. L’entente de règlement constitue un compromis relativement aux réclamations, lesquelles sont contestées, et ne constitue pas une reconnaissance de responsabilité ou d’actes fautifs de la part de la SFM.

Le règlement a été approuvé par la cours la Cour supérieure de l’Ontario et la Cour supérieure du Québec (les « cours »). Les Cours ont nommé Crawford & Company et Garden City Group, LLC comme Administrateurs du règlement. Afin d’être éligible à un dédommagement, les membres du groupe doivent soumettre un Formulaire de réclamation dûment rempli à l’adresse ci-dessous, au plus tard le 9 octobre 2017 (le « délai de réclamation »), le cachet de la poste en faisant foi.

Shareholder Proposal Developments During the 2017 Proxy Season

Posted by Ronald O. Mueller and Elizabeth Ising, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, on

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Ronald O. Mueller and Elizabeth Ising are partners at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. This post is based on a Gibson Dunn publication by Mr. Mueller, Ms. Ising, and Lori Zyskowski.

This post provides an overview of shareholder proposals submitted to public companies for 2017 shareholder meetings, including statistics and notable decisions from the staff (the “Staff”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on no-action requests.

I. Shareholder Proposal Statistics and Voting Results

A. Shareholder Proposals Submitted

1. Overview

For 2017 shareholder meetings, shareholders have submitted approximately 827 proposals, which is significantly less than the 916 proposals submitted for 2016 shareholder meetings and the 943 proposals submitted for 2015 shareholder meetings.

For 2017, across four broad categories of shareholder proposals—governance and shareholder rights; environmental and social issues; executive compensation; and corporate civic engagement—the most frequently submitted were environmental and social proposals (with approximately 345 proposals submitted).

The number of social proposals submitted to companies increased to approximately 201 proposals during the 2017 proxy season (up from 160 in 2016). Thirty-five social proposals submitted in 2017 focused on board diversity (up from 28 in 2016), 34 proposals focused on discrimination or diversity-related issues (up from 16 in 2016), and 19 proposals focused on the gender pay gap (up from 13 in 2016).

Environmental proposals were also popular during the 2017 proxy season, with 144 proposals submitted (up from 139 in 2016). Furthermore, there was an unprecedented level of shareholder support for environmental proposals this proxy season, with three climate change proposals receiving majority support and climate change proposals averaging support of 32.6% of votes cast. This compares to one climate change proposal receiving majority support in 2016 and climate change proposals averaging support of 24.2% of votes cast. As further discussed below, the success of these proposals is at least in part due to the shift in approach towards environmental proposals by certain institutional investors, including BlackRock, Vanguard and Fidelity.

Le MÉDAC gagne encore du terrain

12 juillet 2017
Normand Caron, Le MÉDAC

À Varennes, le 11 juillet 2017, se tenait l’assemblée annuelle des actionnaires du Groupe Jean Coutu, réunis au siège social de l’entreprise. Le MÉDAC y était représenté par deux ambassadeurs, Jules Gilbert et Normand Caron, principalement pour présenter et défendre une proposition d’actionnaire libellée comme suit :

« Il est proposé que l’entreprise divulgue les résultats de vote d’une manière distincte selon leur classe, soit celle conférant un droit de vote et celle conférant plusieurs droits de vote. »

Une fois le décompte des votes terminé, la scrutatrice dévoilait au micro les résultats : la proposition est rejetée par 97,3 % des droits de vote exercés, laissant un maigre 2,7 % d’appui à la proposition du MÉDAC. Malgré un résultat aussi décevant aux yeux des petits actionnaires présents, les représentants du MÉDAC ne cachaient pas leur satisfaction. Pour comprendre pourquoi, il importe de connaître la structure du capital de cette entreprise. Le tableau suivant vous en dévoile les paramètres, selon les données fournies par l’entreprise au 26 avril 2017[1] :

2017 Proxy Season Review

Posted by Mark Manoff and Stephen W. Klemash, EY, on

Sunday, July 9, 2017

Mark Manoff is Americas Vice Chair and Stephen W. Klemash is a Partner with the EY Center for Board Matters. This post is based on a publication from the EY Center for Board Matters by Mr. Manoff and Mr. Klemash.

Amid regulatory and legislative uncertainty, investors remain committed to holding boards, and themselves, to higher levels of accountability, transparency and engagement. The 2017 proxy season is marked by the launch of a historic US stewardship code and the emergence of proxy access as standard practice across large companies.

These developments unite many leading investors behind common governance and stewardship principles and encourage other investors to take a more active approach to stewardship responsibilities. They also grant investors more influence over the companies they own.

Where’s the focus this year?

Board diversity and gender pay equity are key themes in 2017. Investors and boards recognize diversity as a critical element to enhancing board effectiveness and corporate talent agendas. Environmental sustainability is also increasingly in the spotlight, with many investors viewing companies’ approaches to climate risk management through the lens of long-term value creation. Some investors are challenging unequal voting structures and virtual shareholder meetings based on signals that those practices may be on the rise. Meanwhile, investor support for director elections and executive pay programs is holding strong as companies continue to enhance their investor communications—both in the proxy and through direct engagement.

This post is based on the EY Center for Board Matters proprietary corporate governance database and ongoing conversations with investors and directors. [1]

2017-06-23

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