The pop guns of ASX boards
Proxy solicitation is a symptom of company directors' need to be glad-handled.
It was immensely enjoyable to read "The secret weapon boards are deploying to survive AGM season" in The Australian Financial Review on Thursday – a paean to the cottage industry of advisers who nurse public company directors through the indignity of shareholder democracy.
If investor relations executives are the altar boys of corporate Australia, proxy solicitors are its fluffers. And what better time than AGM season to tout their unique services?
The AFR has lifted the veil on a little-known revenue line developed by firms like Brunswick Group, Georgeson and Sodali & Co, paid to whisper in the ears of company directors as they lobby investors for support on AGM resolutions, including their own re-election.