JULY TO SEPTEMBER 2008
Voting Summary
The table below summarizes voting activity in Q3 of 2008 and highlights the extent to which Merseyside Pension Fund voted against or withheld its support from the proposals put to shareholders by company management.
Notable company meetings during this quarter included the AGMs of Tesco and Marks & Spencer PLC. At the Tesco AGM, the Fund voted in support of a shareholder resolution it had helped sponsor, which would require the supermarket to adopt a higher minimum welfare standard for chickens purchased by the company for sale to its customers. The resolution did not pass but did gain an unprecedented level of support (almost 20%, including abstentions) for a resolution addressing an issue of corporate social responsibility.
The Fund joined with many others in the investment community to oppose the proposal from Marks & Spencer that would see Sir Stuart Rose combine the roles of Chairman and CEO. This was a clear contravention of a long established principle of UK corporate governance and, although the resolution narrowly passed, the level of shareholder disquiet conveyed has put the company on notice that it must address this issue at its AGM in 2009.
| UK | Europe | Japan | Rest of the World | |
| No. meetings voted during quarter | 26 | 4 | 1 | 37 |
| No. meetings where the Fund opposed or abstained on 1 or more resolutions | 22 | 3 | N/A | 28 |
| % resolutions voted oppose or abstain | 22 | 24 | N/A | 43 |
