Last month, in related but contrasting developments, foreign institutional investors jostled to put money — lots of it — into two HDFC group companies, its asset management business and the bank, while at the same time they almost succeeded in voting out its chairman, the very person on whose shoulders these institutions have been built. The vote was explained away as being on the advice given by two global proxy advisory firms but it did amplify a risk that Uday Kotak underlined a few months ago when he rhetorically asked and answered, “Who controls the so-called diversified foreign ownership? It is two proxy advisors.”
Proxy firms cast the vote at shareholders meeting, on behalf of the investors, that is, they hold the proxy for shareholders, hence proxy firm. The proxy voting firms are a relatively new addition in the investor support system. They are said to have their origins in the US with the passage of the Employee Re
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