NEW DELHI: Dissent expressed against company resolutions by institutional investors have come down recently, according to a study conducted by PRIME Database.
As per it, shareholder resolutions where more than 20% institutional shareholders expressed their dissent, by casting a negative vote, across all companies listed on NSE (main board), came down to 16% (or 1581 out of 10,092 resolutions for which voting details of institutional shareholders is available) in the in the recently concluded proxy season.
This was in comparison to 17% of total such resolutions in the same period in 2023-24 and 2022-23. In Nifty-50 companies too, while shareholder resolutions where more than 20% of Institutional Shareholders voted against increased to 11% of total resolutions (or 63 in number) as compared to 9% of total (or 45 resolutions) in the same period last year.
According to Pranav Haldea, MD, PRIME Database Group, a closer inspection reveals that 18 out of the 63 resolutions belong to a single company. Excluding this, the number of such resolutions would have dropped to 8% of total (or 43 resolutions). Like in previous years, most of such resolutions were not voted in favour by institutional investors related to board changes and remuneration.
Haldea said, this is an encouraging sign as it shows that firms are continuing to take cognizance of minority shareholders’ interests and are also engaging with investors to understand their concerns prior to proposing resolutions. On an overall basis, in the first half of 2024-25, a total of 14,494 resolutions were proposed to be passed in 2,824 shareholder meetings of 1,995 companies which were listed on NSE as on 30 September 2024.