The initial obvious answer is to engage on issues that the investors you’re meeting want to talk about. That’s the primary purpose of engagement – to find out what investors want to know and give them that information. But you should be proactive if you know there are issues that you should be engaging on. Don’t let it always be shareholder driven. Obviously, if you …
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The Misleading Campaign Against Retail Voting Programs
Following up on the ExxonMobil retail voting program that recently received Corp Fin no-action relief – that I blogged about a few weeks ago – here’s an excerpt from this Cooley Alert penned by Brad Goldberg and Michael Mencher: “Contrary to the allegations of the retail voting program’s detractors, the SEC’s no-action response provides clear guardrails to ensure that retail voting programs do not undermine …
How the SEC’s Shutdown is Impacting EDGAR Next
Recently, I blogged about “What the SEC’s Shutdown Means for You.” I didn’t address how the shutdown impacts the onboarding of EDGAR Next – but now that the shutdown has dragged on for two weeks, we can report on some personal experiences here at Cooley. The SEC’s shutdown plan on pages 12-13 notes that “The Commission’s EDGAR system is operated pursuant to a contract and …
SEC Chair Suggests Path to Eliminating Most Shareholder Proposals
Following up on my blog from Friday about the bombshell speech delivered by SEC Chair Paul Atkins about shareholder proposals, here’s an excerpt from this Cooley Alert penned by Brad Goldberg, Beth Sasfai, Reid Hooper, Michael Mencher and Liz Dunshee: “If submitting a precatory proposal is not a right shareholders have under Delaware law, then, according to Chairman Atkins, such proposals should be excludable under …
SEC Chair Atkins Speech Could Spell Death Knell for Non-Binding Shareholder Proposals
In a bombshell speech last night, SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated that one of his top priorities is to make being a public company an attractive proposition – and he noted that these are the three primary obstacles: His speech then focused on how the SEC might be able to help overcome the last two of these obstacles. On securities litigation reform, Chair Atkins took …
Corp Fin Updates Its Shutdown FAQs
Corp Fin just posted an updated list of its shutdown FAQs, reducing the number of FAQs from 22 to 17 – and making other tweaks as noted in this redlined version of the FAQs. Note that the now-deleted FAQs related to actions to be taken before a shutdown and thus are not applicable (and thus are not marked). For those companies trying to do a …
Type of Annual Meeting Format Varies By Country (Greatly)
This Glass Lewis “Proxy Season Briefing” might be fascinating for those that are US-centric and not aware of how much governance practices vary significantly around the world. Market practice particularly varies when it comes to the format of the annual shareholder meeting. A surprising number of countries have annual meetings where there is almost always an in-person component. This includes the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, …
A Nifty ‘Filer Status Flowchart’
Recently, I blogged about a new CDI in which Corp Fin noted that a non-accelerated filer can now continue to be a non-accelerated filer for the fiscal year immediately following loss of “smaller reporting company” status, on the basis that the issuer is eligible to use SRC-scaled reporting until its first quarter Form 10-Q of the year following the loss of SRC status. In response …
What Should Be Seen as the Potential Outcomes of Shareholder Engagement?
Engagement needs to be both a strategic process and a two-way dialogue, because the investors you’re engaging with have their own goals for your engagement with them. Does each side have certain expectations as to where the engagement ultimately will go? Maybe. Between the company and the investor, there may well be a lack of alignment on the question of “Should this engagement have a …
The SEC’s Inspector General Recommends Changes for Corp Fin’s Disclosure Review
Recently, the SEC’s Office of Inspector General issued this report summarizing its audit of Corp Fin’s disclosure review program. The purpose of the audit was two-fold as to whether the review program: The audit found: 1. Documentation and guidance on annual report selection and scoping were lacking. Over the last two years, Corp Fin’s rationale for selecting companies for elective annual report reviews was often …