On Shareolder Voting Trends

... It shows that the average level of support for management proposals rose from 75.8% in 2006 to 84% last year. In Europe, Manifest, a shareholder-advice firm, says 97% of all shareholder votes cast in Europe last year were supportive of management....

June 2nd 2009
Evening Standard >>

....A big problem, they say, is that too many institutional investors are willing to rubber-stamp pay plans. A recent study by the Corporate Library, a research firm, reviews the proxy-voting trends of 26 large American mutual funds on pay-related matters. Entitled “Compensation Accomplices: Mutual Funds and the Overpaid American CEO”, it shows that the average level of support for management proposals on pay rose from 75.8% in 2006 to 84% last year. Manifest, a European shareholder-advice firm, says 97% of all shareholder votes cast in Europe last year were supportive of management.....

May 28th 2009
The Economist >>

On Lloyds

Sir Victor, along with director Archie Kane and deputy chairman Lord Sandy Leitch are under attack from Manifest, the independent governance and proxy voting agency that advises institutional shareholders.

Manifest has rallied large shareholders to vent their frustration at the Lloyds board for agreeing to merge with rival HBOS at the peak of the credit crisis, a move that nearly sank Lloyds and led to the taxpayer taking a majority stake in the bank at a cost to the public of £25 billion.

In a statement on its website, Manifest said it has “significant concerns about the continued service of those directors who sat on the board during September 2008 when the (HBOS) deal was proposed and subsequently transacted”.

 Heath Aston, Sunday May 31st 2009
Daily Express >>