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Press Release

Support for Shareholder Proposals Increases ProxyPulse™ Report Shows

NEW YORK, N.Y., APRIL 23, 2019 – The ProxyPulse™ report released today shows that environmental, social, and governance (“ESG”) matters are gaining the attention of shareholders and public company boards.

“Support for shareholder proposals rose among institutional investors and retail shareholders, alike, to 43% of the shares voted,” said Chuck Callan, Broadridge SVP, Regulatory Affairs. “That’s a higher level than we’ve seen in recent years. The proposals spanned a wide range of topics, including board diversity, climate change, political contributions, voting rights, proxy access, and executive pay, among other topics.”

Voting results from 1,024 public company annual shareholder meetings held during the “mini proxy season” (July 1 and December 31, 2018) were released today by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) and the PwC Governance Insights Center, together with insights on the 2019 proxy season. The report can be found at:  www.ProxyPulse.com.

Some specifics from this “mini proxy season” include:

  • Institutions own 65% of the shares while individuals own 35% of the shares; these percentages remained constant over the prior year period.
  • Voting participation (of the shares each segment owns) was 84% for institutions and 29% for individuals.
  • On average, support for directors was 89%. Retail shareholders were more supportive on average than institutions. However, 143 directors failed to attain majority support (out of a total of 3,367 that stood for election).
  • On average, support for say-on-pay was 83%. 79 say-on-pay proposals failed to garner at least 70% support, a threshold closely watched by some governance professionals.

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 collaboration between Broadridge, the leading provider of investor communications solutions and the PwC 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 (NYSE: BR), a global Fintech leader with over $6 billion in revenues, provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance, and communications to enable better financial lives. We deliver technology-driven solutions that drive business transformation for banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and public companies. Broadridge's infrastructure serves as a global communications hub enabling corporate governance by linking thousands of public companies and mutual funds to tens of millions of individual and institutional investors around the world. Our technology and operations platforms underpin the daily trading of more than $10 trillion of equities, fixed income and other securities globally. A certified Great Place to Work®, Broadridge is part of the S&P 500® Index, employing over 14,000 associates in 21 countries.

For more information about us, please visit www.broadridge.com.

About PwC US

At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 276,000 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.

PwC refers to the US member firm and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

©2020 PwC. All rights reserved.

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