In Business Roundtable v. SEC, the DC Court of Appeals struck down the proxy access rule giving certain shareholders access to the corporate proxy on the grounds that the SEC failed to adequately fulfill its requirement to consider the impact of new rules on “efficiency, competition, and capital formation.” The Court offered a blistering critique of the SEC’s economic analysis in the rule. Criticism of the opinion followed and also led to a series of Congressional hearings on the SEC’s process for weighing the economic costs and benefits of new rules. Many of the critics of the opinion, and indeed of cost-benefit analysis itself, have argued that it is simply too difficult to guide rulemaking, or that costs are easier to measure than benefits and so the approach trends against the status quo.

I counter that critique of Business Roundtable by way of example in an article co-authored with Thomas Stratmann in the Stanford University Law Review, Does Shareholder Proxy Access Damage Share Value in Small Publicly Traded Companies? We suggest a question the SEC might itself have investigated about its approach, if it had submitted a rule proposal first and if it was committed to economic analysis of its rules. We consider a natural experiment provided by the rule’s differential impact on small and large firms above and below the arbitrary $75 million market capitalization separation. We measure the impact of the market’s frustrated expectation of a permanent exemption for small firms, an expectation stemming from prior SEC implementation of other controversial rules and strong language in the Dodd-Frank Act, against a control group represented by large firms who expected application of the rule and for whom the new rule’s impact was largely capitalized into their value.

…continue reading: Shareholder Proxy Access in Small Publicly Traded Companies

The effects of say on pay on shareholder engagement, the introduction of proxy access proposals, and the resurgence of board declassification resolutions were the principal themes of the last proxy season and are expected to continue to take center stage in 2013, according to a report issued today by The Conference Board in collaboration with FactSet Research Systems Inc.

Proxy Voting Analytics (2008-2012) analyzes data on voting by shareholders of U.S. companies that held their annual general meetings (AGMs) in the January 1-June 30 period during the last five years. Aggregate data on shareholder proposals, management proposals, and proxy contests is examined and segmented based on market index (whether the Russell 3000 or the S&P 500) and 20 business industry groups.

The report is supplemented with an appendix offering detailed recommendations from Conference Board experts for companies facing situations of shareholder activism.

Data analyzed in the report includes:

…continue reading: Proxy Voting Analytics (2008-2012)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has suffered a number of recent setbacks in areas ranging from enforcement policy to rulemaking. One of the most serious was the DC Circuit’s 2011 decision in Business Roundtable v. SEC, in which the court invalidated the SEC’s proxy access rule, Rule 14a-11, on the basis that the SEC had failed to conduct an adequate cost-benefit analysis. By imposing an onerous, and possibly insurmountable procedural burden, the decision threatens to paralyze rulemaking by the SEC and other administrative agencies. The effect is particularly troubling in light of the heavy rulemaking obligations imposed by Dodd-Frank and the JOBS Act.

In my article, The Long Road Back: Business Roundtable and the Future of SEC Rulemaking (forthcoming in Seattle University Law Review), I critically evaluate the Business Roundtable decision. Specifically, I argue that, although Rule 14a-11 suffered from a number of flaws, flaws I have noted in other work (see Fisch, The Destructive Ambiguity of Federal Proxy Access, 61 Emory L. J. 435 (2012)), the deficiencies in SEC’s rule-making that led to the adoption of Rule 14a-11 cannot accurately be ascribed to inadequate economic analysis. Nor is the demanding standard imposed by DC Circuit’s decision a product of the statutory constraints on SEC rulemaking. Rather it stems from the court’s skepticism about proxy access and the SEC’s policymaking generally.

The SEC’s inability to defend its proxy access rule against attack was, in part, a product of two important constraints on its policy formation – the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act. Although commentators have defended both these requirements in terms of transparency and democratic values, they sacrifice consensus building as well as decision-making efficiency, and they allow for the increased influence of political forces and interest groups. These sacrifices are of particular concern in the context of SEC rulemaking and, I argue, were at the heart of a problematic Rule 14a-11.

…continue reading: Business Roundtable and the Future of SEC Rulemaking

As participants in the Forum know, SEC rule changes that took effect in September 2011 once again allow shareowners the right to submit and vote on “proxy access proposals” as we had done prior to an underground reinterpretation of SEC rules in 1990 and during a brief window of opportunity after AFSCME v AIG (2006). These proposals give shareowners the right to include director nominees in the company’s proxy materials. Arguably, the most innovative recent models of such proposals have now withstood the SEC “no-action” process and will soon come to a vote at Forest Labs (FRX) on August 15th, Medtronic (MDT) on August 23rd and H&R Block (HRB) on September 13th.

Download a PowerPoint presentation and/or read the paper (pdf) on these important proposals. All three proposals were introduced by long-time activist Kenneth Steiner, with the help of John Chevedden. Design of the proposal came from a team of United States Proxy Exchange (USPX) members, including James McRitchie, Glyn Holton, Brett Davidson, Steve Neiman, Daniel Rudewicz, Steven Towns and others, with helpful input from a variety of their contacts.

…continue reading: Proxy Access: Upcoming Votes at FRX, MDT and HRB

Pursuant to SEC rule changes that took effect in September 2011, shareholders are now permitted to submit and vote on “proxy access proposals” – that is, proposals to give shareholders the right to include director nominees in the company’s proxy materials. Over 20 such shareholder proposals (half of which were binding) were submitted during the 2012 proxy season, of which only eight have come to a vote. Many of the proposals that did not come to a vote were deemed excludable from proxy statements by the staff of the SEC for a variety of technical reasons. We have included on the following page a chart of the terms and outcomes of proxy access proposals submitted to date.

The vote results from this limited pool suggest that shareholders are hesitant to approve proposals that would give a proxy access right to holders of a small number of shares, but are more supportive of proposals that have ownership requirements that are similar to the 3%/3-year threshold that would have applied under the SEC’s now-vacated mandatory proxy access rule.

…continue reading: Proxy Access Proposals: Review of 2012 Results and Outlook for 2013

There have been a number of significant shareholder proposals submitted during the 2012 proxy season to date. This alert summarizes notable responses by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) staff (the “Staff”) to no-action requests concerning many of these shareholder proposals. By way of background, according to Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”), 1,105 proposals have been submitted to companies to date for 2012 annual meetings. As of May 22, 2012, 303 no-action requests had been submitted to the SEC since October 1, 2011. This is comparable to the number of shareholder proposal no-action requests submitted during a similar period in 2011. Moreover, repeating the experience in 2011, the number of requests for reconsideration submitted by both companies and proponents was high. In addition, many companies successfully negotiated with proponents to withdraw shareholder proposals, illustrating that engagement with proponents can often eliminate the need to file a no-action request.

…continue reading: SEC Staff Guidance on Shareholder Proposals During 2012 Proxy Season

The 2012 proxy season in the United States, forecast by some to feature significant turmoil and change, has in fact been less tumultuous than expected. It’s been all quiet on the regulatory front, owing to the SEC’s highly deliberate approach to rulemaking and the D.C. Circuit’s interventionist reaction to the proxy access rules. With new rules, for once, not in motion, change is occurring incrementally, as activists continue old campaigns and launch new ones, institutional shareholders express their support on both the issues and the circumstances of particular companies, and the companies themselves decide when to resist and when to negotiate.

Continued Support for Say-on-Pay Votes

Obtaining say-on-pay support continues to be a nonissue for many companies. Of the 639 large accelerated filers to report results as of May 18th, only 2% failed their say-on-pay votes, the same percentage that we saw in 2011. Less than 16% of large accelerated filers reported say-on-pay results below the 80% approval level and less than 10% reported results below the 70% approval level. The continued high pass rates may reflect not only the tactical judgment of shareholders to force the issue at only a handful of companies, but also the retreat at many companies from practices that had drawn the most criticism, such as tax gross-ups and excessive severance. Many companies also increased their engagement with shareholders and have done a better job of explaining their pay practices.

…continue reading: Mid-Season Update on the 2012 Proxy Season

Testifying recently before a House Financial Services subcommittee, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro stated that, because of capacity constraints, proposing a revised mandatory rule on shareholder access to company proxy materials is “not on the Commission’s immediate agenda.” She noted, however, that the issue is one that the SEC will “continue to look at over time.”

Last summer, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the SEC’s Rule 14a-11, finding that the SEC had “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in adopting the rule without adequately assessing its economic effects. At the time, the SEC said that it was considering its options but noted that its changes facilitating private ordering in proxy access were not impacted by the Court’s decision.

In the current 2012 proxy season, less than two dozen companies have received proxy access proposals. This modest level of activity is in part explained by activist shareholders waiting to learn whether or not the SEC would be re-promulgating a mandatory rule. Because it is now clear that this will not happen, at least not for the 2013 proxy season, we can expect the focus on private ordering through shareholder proposals to continue and increase.

…continue reading: SEC Not Pursuing Mandatory Proxy Access at this Time

In the wake of Business Roundtable v. SEC, public company shareholders and boards have, for the first time, been using Rule 14a-8 to propose, and defend against, proxy access proposals. Earlier this month, the SEC staff released a series of no-action letters  addressing management requests to exclude shareholders’ proxy access proposals from the ballot. The staff has based these early rulings on their longstanding 14a-8 precedents, which were originally crafted to address proposals outside the proxy access context. The staff’s approach leaves open the possibility that management will be able to use these rules to exclude proxy access proposals in the future, endangering the viability of Rule 14a-8 as a means of facilitating private ordering in proxy access. Before next proxy season, the SEC should make clear that it will apply Rule 14a-8 in a way that will give investors a meaningful opportunity to adopt the proxy access rules that shareholders prefer.

Although the staff’s initial rulings addressed important preliminary questions raised by the use of Rule 14a-8 for facilitating proxy access, they were much more notable for their adherence to the staff’s existing precedents for evaluating shareholder proposals outside the proxy access context. This approach has convinced corporate counsel and their clients that the SEC will allow management to use these precedents to exclude proxy access proposals from the ballot. Unless the SEC reverses course, this approach will give management a systematic advantage that will prevent shareholders from adopting their preferred approach to proxy access.

…continue reading: Will the SEC Facilitate Shareholder Access to the Ballot Under Rule 14a-8?

Corporate America’s proxy season—when companies hold annual meetings and shareholders vote on various proposals submitted to them on proxy statements—is now under way. As of March 15, 51 of the largest 200 companies by revenues, as ranked by Fortune magazine, had announced their annual meetings and mailed proxy materials to shareholders. Of those companies, 11 have already held meetings, with four more—Hewlett Packard on March 21, Exelon on April 2, Bank of New York Mellon on April 10, and United Technologies on April 11—scheduled to meet before the annual meeting cycle begins in earnest in mid-April.

In 2011, the Manhattan Institute launched its ProxyMonitor.org database, which catalogs shareholder proposals at America’s largest companies. Drawing upon information from the database, we have been examining a growing trend in shareholder activism wherein investors attempt to influence management and corporate practices through the shareholder voting process, sometimes in ways not directly related to maintaining or increasing shareholder value. [1]

This finding summarizes early trends in 2012 shareholder proposal findings and examines 2012 results to date in shareholder advisory votes on executive compensation—including the significant role played by the shareholder advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS). This report also looks ahead to significant classes of shareholder proposals on the horizon that I have previously identified as items to watch for this year [2] — proposals relating to corporate campaign finance and political spending, proposals to separate the positions of corporate chairman and CEO, and proposals to grant shareholders proxy access for their director nominees. While votes on these issues have not occurred to date, several such proposals are on proxy ballots in the coming weeks, and we expect these to be major issues during this proxy season.

…continue reading: ISS Influence on 2012 Shareholder Voting