'Institutional investors vote aggressively against key issues'

Several resolutions tabled by listed companies have faced opposition from more than 20 per cent of voting institutional shareholders at the general meetings held so far this year, says a study.
Some of the resolutions proposed came under severe investor scrutiny from institutional shareholders, according to the analysis of shareholder meetings during the January- September period this year by InGovern Research Services.
Institutional investors are voting against resolutions pertaining to directorial appointments, remuneration to directors, stock options and auditor replacement among others.
The reasons ranged from insufficient attendance and high outside directorships to low independence of the Board, the report noted.

"Shareholder meetings have assumed greater importance considering recent shareholder disputes. It is heartening to see that institutional investors are increasingly participating in shareholder meetings and voting aggressively," InGovern Founder and MD Shriram Subramanian said.
Some proposals by leading companies were voted out, and many others came close to being voted out, showing that companies can no longer afford to take investors for granted.

The resolutions proposed by IDFC (pertaining to stock options) and Zee Entertainment (pertaining to creation of charges on assets) failed to pass with requisite majority, it added.
Apart from this, many institutional investors voted against resolutions in companies including Ambuja Cements, Eicher Motors, Hindalco, Bharat Petroleum, Power Grid Corp, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Bajaj Auto.

A total of 9,664 resolutions were proposed by 1,344 companies listed on BSE and NSE at Annual General Meetings (AGMs), Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs), Court Convened Meetings (CCMs) and Postal Ballots (PBs). These meetings were held during January-September this year.
As per the report, September was the busiest month with 4,854 resolutions being tabled at the meetings, followed by August (2,222 resolutions) and July (1,443 resolutions).