You might be thinking what does a Corporate Governance Analyst role at Equiniti look like? Well, if you are, then this is the article for you.
In a nutshell, a Corporate Governance Analyst at Equiniti is tasked with the role of supporting the Corporate Governance Managers (CG Managers) with research to support them in client work all year round. The research equips the CG Managers with the knowledge and detail required to provide high quality analysis and advice.
A core underpin to our proxy solicitation and corporate advisory services is our knowledge. We understand the expectations of investors and how they will assess a company against their expectations to determine their voting decisions at shareholder meetings. Investors usually publish their Voting Guidelines which enables us to understand and advise our clients on how investors will assess ESG matters and how this may affect resolutions, generally those proposed at AGMs. This knowledge is required for our core products that support our advice and successful AGM outcomes.
We focus our work on tracking the investor policies of the most relevant investors to EQ Advisory’s clients. Tracking key voting topics/matters helps the CG team to identify any potential issues with proposed AGM resolutions. It is also useful when, for instance, we need to give advice to a client on how their top shareholders will approach a specific issue the client is facing at any point during the year or when a client would like to understand an against vote on a resolution, by any of their investors. We can find the possible rationale based on their voting policies.
Another key research which is tracked is our Sub 80% Research which tracks shareholder dissent at listed companies. The importance of this aligns to the 2024 UK Corporate Governance Code Provision 4 which states the following;
When 20 per cent or more of votes have been cast against the board recommendation for a resolution, the company should explain, when announcing voting results, what actions it intends to take to consult shareholders to understand the reasons behind the result. An update on the views received from shareholders and actions taken should be published no later than six months after the shareholder meeting. The board should then provide a final summary in the annual report and, if applicable, in the explanatory notes to resolutions at the next shareholder meeting, on what impact the feedback has had on the decisions the board has taken and any actions or resolutions now proposed.
For these resolutions, we track recommendations given by the main Proxy Advisors; as well as any shareholder rationales. This allows us to efficiently pinpoint recommendations of Proxy Advisors and identify any trends.
An additional key research piece which a Corporate Governance Analyst at EQ will also track are the Institutional Voting Information Service (IVIS) recommendations. This is important as once the Investment Association (IA) Shareholder Priorities are published we can track, across the FTSE, any trends in issues that are resulting in delivering IVIS ‘amber’ and ‘red’ tops. By maintaining this research, so that it is readily available to the team, we can accurately deliver fast, high-quality analysis to our clients.
Over and above these core research activities, the Corporate Governance Analyst works with the Knowledge Manager and Head of Corporate Governance to deliver research such as the Mid-Season Review and research to support our various events and webinars.
The Mid-Season review is a whitepaper which takes a lot of preparation of data to ensure that the statistics that are used are reliable and informative. The analyst, working alongside the Head of Corporate Governance, will pull out data which are key areas of interest from the proxy season. For 2024, this included data surrounding the re-election of directors, remuneration report and policy statistics, disapplication of pre-emption rights resolutions and an in-depth dive into the sub 80% support categories. The data is then compared to previous years which allows the team to highlight any trends arising which could influence and impact the upcoming proxy season. If you would like to view this year’s Mid-Season Review, please click here.
Well, if you’ve made it this far, you now know more of what a Corporate Governance Analyst at Equiniti does. If you have any further questions or would like to know how EQ Advisory might be able to assist you in your upcoming AGM, or how we can assist with any ad hoc Corporate Governance related projects, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the team.