How to Handle Shareholder Engagement
June 7, 2021 •
Our guests – Prudential’s Peggy Foran, Uber’s Keir Gumbs, PJT Camberview’s Bob McCormick and Wachtell Lipton’s Sabastian Niles – explain the latest about shareholder engagement, including:
- How do you know who to engage with? For a meeting, who should attend? How should those that attend be briefed?
- How do you know which issues to engage on? When is okay to not engage? What circumstances?
- When is the best time to engage? How does “sunny day/peace time” engagement affect (improve) a company’s situation if it ever faces a contested situation / activist pressure / a crisis?
- Do engagements need to have outcomes? What do you see as the potential outcomes of engagement?
- What does engagement typically consist of? What types of communications? A deck? A one-pager?
- How does disclosure relate to engagement and vice versa? Do they support / improve / simplify / strengthen each other?
- Investors are under increasing pressure to be more transparent about their stewardship activities – does this risk creating friction with companies or undermining trust? How should companies navigate that potential that a major investor may be more public with their views about a company?
- Has working virtually changed the timing – or nature – of engagement at all?
- Can you discuss the differences between proxy season engagement and E&S engagement? How is “corporate purpose” weaving into engagements?
- What are the biggest mistakes / best practices you see made during engagement?