Investors Support Say-on-Pay and Environmental Proposals Broadridge and PwC ProxyPulse™ Report Shows

NEW YORK, March 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The ProxyPulse™ report released today shows steady investor support for company boards of directors and say-on-pay proposals, while expressing concerns about environmental issues.

The report, released by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) and PwC's Governance Insights Center, is based on the results from 1,040 annual shareholder meetings held during the "mini season" between July 1 and December 31, 2017. Additional details, insights, graphics, data, and observations can be found at: www.ProxyPulse.com.

"Environmental issues and improving board diversity are becoming a larger part of the corporate conversation, as seen from voting data and institutional investor actions in early 2018," said Chuck Callan, senior vice president, regulatory affairs, Broadridge. "Institutional investors are interested and becoming vocal on these topics, even as they are largely supportive of boards and management."

Paul DeNicola, managing director of the Governance Insights Center for PwC, commented, "Boards of directors and management teams can use the ProxyPulse data to better understand shareholder priorities and voting behavior. This in turn, can help inform their shareholder engagement efforts."

The ProxyPulse report showed:

• For the first time, shareholder proposals on environmental issues received majority support at a handful of large cap companies.
• Average support for shareholder proposals on climate change increased from 27% in the 2016 fall mini-season to 30% in the 2017 fall mini-season.
• Overall support for say-on-pay proposals, at 83% on average, continues to be strong.
• 3,337 directors were nominated for election and, on average, received the support of 95% of the shares voted, an increase of 2% over the 2016 mini-season.
• Institutional investors continued to vote at high rates, at 86% of the shares they held.
• Retail investor voting rates remained relatively low, at 27%, while they owned 35% of the shares.

About ProxyPulse

ProxyPulse is based in part on Broadridge's processing of shares held in street name, which accounts for more than 80 percent of all shares outstanding of U.S. publicly-listed companies. Shareholder voting trends during a proxy season represent a snapshot in time and may not be predictive of full-year results.

ProxyPulse is a collaboration between Broadridge, the leading provider of investor communications solutions and PwC's Governance Insights Center, a group that supports directors and investors with governance knowledge. Visit ProxyPulse.com to access the full report.

About Broadridge
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), the $4 billion global fintech leader, provides investor communications and technology-driven solutions for broker-dealers, banks, mutual funds and corporate issuers globally. Broadridge's investor communications, securities processing and managed services solutions help clients reduce their capital investments in operations infrastructure, allowing them to increase their focus on core business activities. With more than 50 years of experience, Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for more than 50 percent of public companies and mutual funds globally, and processes more than $5 trillion in fixed income and equity trades per day. Broadridge employs approximately 10,000 full-time associates in 16 countries. For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.

About PwC US
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We're a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 223,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.

PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

© 2018 PwC. All rights reserved.

PwC's Governance Insights Center
PwC's Governance Insights Center supports directors and investors with governance knowledge to answer tough questions and tackle complex challenges. Learn from our network of subject-matter experts, business leaders, and experienced peers as they share their insights and the latest thinking on current issues.

Beyond governance, we help directors and investors better understand new financial accounting standards, so they can make better oversight and investment decisions. The center connects all the dots for a more complete perspective. For more information, please visit: http://www.pwc.com/us/en/governance-insights-center.

Media Contacts:

Andrew MacMillan
The Torrenzano Group
1-212-681-1700
1-914-400-3674 mobile
amacmillan@torrenzano.com 

Daniel Maiello
PwC
1-202-271-4347
Daniel.g.maiello@pwc.com

SOURCE Broadridge