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Software company founder declares war on âtoxicâ proxy firms
Apr 18, 2021 â 11.00pm
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TechnologyOne founder and chairman Adrian Di Marco has declared war on influential proxy firms that advise shareholders on how to vote, warning they are an unelected and unaccountable scourge on corporate Australia and that US-style rules are required.
The software company suffered close to a 40 per cent âstrikeâ at its annual meeting in February after a $210,000 executive bonus plan triggered a shareholder revolt over the boardâs use of a discretion.
TechnologyOneâs Adrian Di Marco says proxy firms are an unaccountable scourge.Â
Tertius Pickard
Mr Di Marco said boards should be entitled to use their discretion to grow a business but proxy advisers had âweaponisedâ executive pay to demand a âcookie-cutterâ approach to an overly complicated area.
BlackRock, Vanguard slay direct ASX holdings
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The worldâs two largest asset managers, BlackRock and Vanguard, have boosted their ownership of Australian shares by 20 per cent over the past three years, as local investors ditched direct shareholdings in favour of passive exchange-traded funds.
Research conducted by Carole Comerton-Forde of UNSW Business School has found that the two US-headquartered investment behemoths increased their combined ownership of companies in the S&P/ASX 300 index from 8.1 per cent in 2017 to 9.7 per cent at the end of the 2020 calendar year.
The data is based on their holdings in companies where a substantial shareholder disclosure is made, meaning the investors hold more than 5 per cent of the register.