October 20, 2008
Here They Come: First Batch of North Dakota Reincorporation Proposals
In response to a no-action request, the SEC’s Corp Fin Staff recently decided that Hain Celestial could not exclude a shareholder proposal calling for the company to reincorporate to North Dakota from its proxy statement (the company had hoped to exclude the proposal on procedural grounds; there don’t appear to be substantive grounds to argue for exclusion). Hain Celestial is incorporated in Delaware; the other two companies with this proposal so far – Oshkosh and Whole Foods – are incorporated in Wisconsin and Texas, respectively. Here is a copy of the proposal.
More companies can expect this type of proposal this proxy season as proponents attempt to leverage the North Dakota Publicly Traded Corporations Act, enacted in mid-’07 to provide for a host of shareholder-friendly measures (as noted in this blog).
As noted in this Reuters article, hold-til-retirement and say-on-pay will be two popular shareholder proposals topics during this proxy season as investors turn their attention to pay practices that encourage excessive risk-taking.
An Opportunity to Comment on RiskMetric’s ’09 Proxy Policies
Last week, RiskMetrics’ ISS Division put up a “Request for Comment” for a number of potential modifications to its policies for 2009. Take advantage of this opportunity to influence these important proxy voting policies through an easy-to-use online form. This year, the topics include:
– Poor Accounting Practices (U.S.)
– Discharge of Directors (Europe)
– Independent Chair (U.S.)
– Names of Director Nominees Not Disclosed (Global)
– Net Operating Loss Poison Pills (U.S.)
– Peer Group Selection for Executive Compensation Comparisons (U.S.)
– Poor Pay Practices (U.S.) Pay for Performance (U.S.)
– Corporate Social Responsibility Compensation Related Proposals (U.S.)
– Share Buyback Proposals (Global)
This Gibson Dunn memo summarizes RiskMetrics’ proposed policy changes. In addition, RiskMetrics has made these survey results from institutional investors available.
How Do You Feel About the Upcoming Proxy Season?
– Broc Romanek