GLOBAL SHAREHOLDER ID
Knowing your global shareholders
Companies around the world are experiencing an increased globalization of their shareholder bases as evidence reveals an escalation in ownership by investors outside a company’s home market. A significant portion of this investment is by U.S. and U.K. based institutions, which have been instrumental in pushing corporate governance reforms to the forefront of both boardrooms and the press around the world. As this activity has gained momentum and has at times become hostile, it has resulted in change in environments previously immune to governance activism.
As a result, companies can no longer ignore the importance of understanding who their shareholders are and any trends in the overall makeup of their shareholder base. This information has always been, and will continue to be, vital to the effectiveness of an investor relations efforts. However, it now has the added importance of allowing corporate officers to assess their vulnerability to an activist engagement.
As one of the largest proxy solicitation and governance consulting firms globally, we bring the added dimension of understanding institutional voting and governance practices that many of our competitors simply do not have.
The Altman Group’s Global Shareholder Identification team arms you with the information on know who is holding shares, provides insights as to why transactions are occurring and measures the success of your investor relations efforts.
We assist hundreds of corporations throughout the world in many ways to deal with the new dynamics of their shareholder bases, offering these essential components:
1. Global Shareholder Identification
The Altman Group will identify a corporation’s shareholders around the world. While other sources of information, like public filings including 13(f)s, are often outdated, incomplete and/or inaccurate, the foundation of the Altman Group’s reports are current shareholder records like shareholder registers, depository listings or other such records, as well as information gathered from global custodians and direct communications with the investment community. This information is analyzed and cross-referenced with our proprietary databases to provide clients with the most comprehensive information available on their shareholder base.
2. Global Proxy Solicitation
The process of securing votes internationally is a complex and difficult task. The Altman Group leverages its longstanding relationships with a network of contacts around the world to maximize voter turnout.
Our process includes any or all of the following steps:
- Review and make recommendations to ensure our client’s shareholder materials are in a format that is easily understood by the global investment community.
- Printing of shareholder materials as necessary for rapid distribution and savings on shipping costs.
- Distribution of shareholder materials to all interested parties – identified investors and beneficial owners, global custodians, sub–agent banks and proxy voting agencies (ISS etc.).
- Follow–up with all parties to confirm receipt of materials and answer any questions about agenda items and the process for getting shares represented at our client’s shareholder meeting.
- Obtain voting analyses and recommendations from the proxy voting agencies to confirm they accurately understood the items to be voted upon, and to correct (in conjunction with the client) any misinterpretations of the agenda items.
- Additional calls to all parties to ensure voting instructions flow through the appropriate channels in order for the related shares to be represented at the shareholder meeting.
3. Global Corporate Governance Consulting
Corporations in many parts of the world may feel that they are not susceptible to the pressures of the global invest community and corporate governance reform. However, we feel that as the voting power of hundreds of billions of dollars in global equity assets is consolidated in the hands of very few proxy voting agencies, corporations with poor corporate governance records will see significant increases in opposition to their managements and its proposals. The Altman Group is well situated to advise companies in such situations and to facilitate discussions aimed at resolving them before they come to a shareholder vote.
The Altman Group has extensive experience working with our clients to analyze their shareholder bases and determine the extent of support and opposition their agenda items will receive from shareholders. Utilizing proprietary databases as well as well–established contacts in the global investment community, The Altman Group consults with clients to determine if specific agenda items need to be modified in order to receive adequate support from shareholders to pass. Should The Altman Group determine a client’s proposal will not obtain adequate support, we can advise our clients on how they can modify their proposals to maximize support.
4. Investor Relations Support
The Altman Group recognizes that its domestic clients as well as many companies outside the U.S. would like high level investor relations consulting without incurring the substantial costs many investor relations consulting agencies charge for monthly or yearly retainers.
The Altman Group offers clients the following services on a project–by–project or hourly basis as appropriate:
- Preception studies
- Message development
- Investor targeting
- Investor meetings