shareholder proposals
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SEC steps back from no-action reviews, leaving proxy season on unstable ground
Regulator will reduce oversight of shareholder proposal disputes in a step critics say will leave investors in ‘legal limbo’ The SEC has changed its rules around how companies seek permission to exclude certain shareholder proposals from proxies, in a move that will make it more difficult for activists to force votes on contentious issues. Earlier this week, the commission’s Division of Corporation Finance announced that it will not substantially review no-action requests under Rule 14a-8 for the 2025-26 proxy season, except for procedural exclusions it specifies in the legislation. The regulator blamed ‘current resource and timing considerations following the lengthy…
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Despite political noise, the stats clearly show the anti-DEI movement does not have shareholder support
The movement fell flat in 2025’s proxy season with most proposals receiving less than 2 percent investor backing Shareholders sent companies a clear message this proxy season: anti-DEI proposals do not have their backing. At 30 of the largest US companies, together worth over $13 trn, every anti-DEI proposal was rejected, with most receiving less than 2 percent support from investors, according to nonprofit Impactivize. These proposals, which aimed to roll back corporate DEI efforts, made up about 40 percent of all DEI-related proposals this year, a sharp increase from 23 percent in 2024. Despite growing . . . Enjoy access to this and…
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Talking DEI under Trump 2.0: how anti-woke investors are hijacking pro-ESG proposals
What does DEI mean to you? Here at IR Impact, we’ve stopped spelling out diversity, equity and inclusion, working under the assumption that this most tricky of news items is known to all. But it seems that other interpretations exist – on the White House official X account for example, where a post was recently put out stating ‘the only DEI we support is Deport Every Illegal’. That very much sums up the kind of narrative companies are up against with today’s very public broadly anti-ESG and specifically anti-DEI rhetoric.
