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Press Release

Investors Support Say-on-Pay and Environmental Proposals
Broadridge and PwC ProxyPulse™ Report Shows

NEW YORK, N.Y., March 14, 2018 The ProxyPulse™ report released today shows steady investor support for company boards of directors and say-on-pay proposals, while expressing concerns about environmental issues.

The report, released by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) and PwC’s Governance Insights Center, is based on the results from 1,040 annual shareholder meetings held during the “mini season” between July 1 and December 31, 2017. Additional details, insights, graphics, data, and observations can be found at: www.ProxyPulse.com.

“Environmental issues and improving board diversity are becoming a larger part of the corporate conversation, as seen from voting data and institutional investor actions in early 2018,” said Chuck Callan, senior vice president, regulatory affairs, Broadridge. “Institutional investors are interested and becoming vocal on these topics, even as they are largely supportive of boards and management.”

Paul DeNicola, managing director of the Governance Insights Center for PwC, commented, “Boards of directors and management teams can use the ProxyPulse data to better understand shareholder priorities and voting behavior. This in turn, can help inform their shareholder engagement efforts.”

The ProxyPulse report showed:

  • For the first time, shareholder proposals on environmental issues received majority support at a handful of large cap companies

  • Average support for shareholder proposals on climate change increased from 27% in the 2016 fall mini-season to 30% in the 2017 fall mini-season

  • Overall support for say-on-pay proposals, at 83% on average, continues to be strong

  • 3,337 directors were nominated for election and, on average, received the support of 95% of the shares voted, an increase of 2% over the 2016 mini-season

  • Institutional investors continued to vote at high rates, at 86% of the shares they held

  • Retail investor voting rates remained relatively low, at 27%, while they owned 35% of the shares


About ProxyPulse

ProxyPulse is based in part on Broadridge’s processing of shares held in street name, which accounts for more than 80 percent of all shares outstanding of U.S. publicly-listed companies. Shareholder voting trends during a proxy season represent a snapshot in time and may not be predictive of full-year results.

ProxyPulse is a research project between Broadridge, a provider of investor communications solutions and PwC’s Governance Insights Center, a group that supports directors and investors with governance knowledge.

Visit ProxyPulse.com to access the full report.

About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) a global Fintech leader and a part of the S&P 500® Index, is a leading provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset managers and corporate issuers globally. Broadridge’s investor communications, securities processing and managed services solutions help clients reduce their capital investments in operations infrastructure, allowing them to increase their focus on core business activities. With over 50 years of experience, Broadridge’s infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for over 50 percent of public companies and mutual funds globally, and processes on average more than US $10 trillion in fixed income and equity trades per day. Broadridge employs over 14,000 full-time associates in 21 countries. For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.

About PwC US

At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. PwC is a network of firms in 158 countries with more than 236,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.

©2018 PwC. All rights reserved.

For more information, please visit: http://www.pwc.com/us/en/governance-insights-center.

To contact media relations, please email us at mediarelations@broadridge.com.