Paul Myners has today issued his fourth report to the Shareholder Voting Working Group (SVWG) on his review of the impediments to voting UK shares.
Voting levels have risen to over 60 percent, up from 50 percent three years ago. However, although much work is being put into determining how particular shares should be voted, not enough effort is then made to ensure that the voting process works and votes get through.
Georgeson Shareholder traced the votes of 25 institutional investors at one FTSE 100 company’s AGM in 2006 and found that almost 5 percent of the votes were “lost”. This demonstrates that the process is still flawed and that not enough importance is being given to voting at company meetings.
Myners is urging all those involved in the voting system, particularly issuers, agents and registrars, to actively address these failings by making the system more efficient and transparent. He will also be writing to a number of FTSE 100 Chairmen to ask them to trace their votes to see if any have been lost and report on the findings.
“Voting levels have increased and investors are taking a much greater interest in deciding how to vote,” says Paul Myners, Chairman of the SVWG. “However, I have a continuing fear that many investors have failed to take necessary steps to ensure that their shares cannot be borrowed to be voted in a way that is contrary to their economic interest.”