Among the noteworthy updates to UBS’s newly released 2024 proxy voting guidelines: UBS won’t support proposals to hold virtual-only shareholder meetings unless the company explicitly provides that this authority will be used only in exceptional circumstances, and—to ensure adequate board refreshment—may vote against Nom/Gov Chairs if more than one-third of directors exceed a 12-year tenure. Also particularly noteworthy are the updates to UBS’s approach to evaluating E&S-related shareholder proposals and companies’ practices (pages 10-11), which in some respects reflects a more nuanced, company-specific analysis overall, and in other respects reflects more prescriptive or bright-line expectations as relates to specific topics. See the redline comparison to the 2023 guidelines.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!