Every year, the Ethos Foundation publishes an updated version of its proxy voting guidelines encompassing the latest developments in corporate governance. Ethos' general meeting analyses are based on these guidelines. Voting recommendations are posted on the Foundation's website two days before general meetings.
Compared to the previous edition, the voting recommendations of chapter 4 dedicated to remunerations were amended. Ethos is of the opinion that the remuneration policy of companies listed in Switzerland should be put to an advisory vote of the shareholders at the annual general meeting. This is recommended by the OECD and such practice works in a very satisfactory manner in several countries, for instance the United Kingdom.
The 2007 Proxy voting guidelines present in detail the situations where the remuneration policy or a long term incentive plan cannot be accepted by Ethos. This is the case in particular when the information provided to the shareholders is insufficient, or when best practice rules are not respected with regard to the structure of the remuneration policy and incentive plans.
The 2007 edition of Ethos' Proxy voting guidelines is available free of charge in electronic format.
