Directors Elected With Increased Levels of Shareholder Support Reports Broadridge and PwC

NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) and  PwC's Center for Board Governance today released their third ProxyPulse™ report covering over 4,000 shareholder meetings from January 1 through June 29, 2013. It includes the finding that directors were elected with 95% of shares voted in their favor.

"Shareholders were more supportive of management proposals this year than last year, including for pay plans and directors," said Chuck Callan, Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Broadridge.  "Nearly 90% of companies exceeded the 70% support threshold for votes on their executive compensation plans, and over 80% of all directors received the support of 90% or more of shares voted." 

Mary Ann Cloyd, leader of PwC's Center for Board Governance added, "With respect to say on pay, we found differences in shareholder support at companies with favorable voting below 50%, specifically that retail shareholders supported say on pay at higher rates than institutional shareholders."

Retail voting participation overall continues to lag. In the 2013 proxy season, institutional shareholders voted 90% of their shares; retail shareholders voted about 30%.

Key findings of the research include the following:

• In total, institutional shareholders own 67% of street shares versus 33% for retail - reflecting an increase of about 2 percentage points in institutional ownership from 2012.
• On average, 2013 pay plans were approved with 89% of the shares voted in favor, a slight increase from 2012. Shareholders supported pay plans at rates over 90% at two-thirds of companies and nearly nine of ten companies received at least 70% support.
• About 68% of all voted retail shares were cast via the internet, 27% via paper ballot and 5% via touch tone phone. The rate of retail shares voted via the internet increased by 5% over 2012, while shares voted via hard copy decreased by 5 percentage points from last year.

ProxyPulse is a collaboration between Broadridge, the leading provider of investor communication solutions for financial services firms, mutual funds and corporate issuers globally, and PwC's Center for Board Governance. The analysis in this report is based upon Broadridge's processing of shares held in street name, which accounts for over 80% of all shares outstanding of U.S. publicly-listed companies. The report encompasses 4,037 shareholder meetings, from January 1 to June 29, 2013, and looks at shareholder voting patterns year over year.  Visit ProxyPulse.com to access the full version of the third edition of the ProxyPulse report.

About Broadridge

Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR) is the leading provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions for broker-dealers, banks, mutual funds and corporate issuers globally. Broadridge's investor communications, securities processing and business process outsourcing solutions help clients reduce their capital investments in operations infrastructure, allowing them to increase their focus on core business activities. With over 50 years of experience, Broadridge's infrastructure underpins proxy voting services for over 90% of public companies and mutual funds in North America, and processes more than $5 trillion in fixed income and equity trades per day. Broadridge employs approximately 6,400 full-time associates in 13 countries. 

For more information about Broadridge, please visit www.broadridge.com.

About PwC's Center for Board Governance

PwC's Center for Board Governance is a leading resource for directors. By promoting leading governance practices, the Center advances excellence in the boardroom and is dedicated to better enabling boards and audit committees to perform their important roles. To provide timely updates to board members, the Center publishes the Annual Corporate Directors Survey, monthly BoardroomDirect, and offers forums for directors to discuss current issues.

For more information, please visit http://www.pwc.com/US/CenterForBoardGovernance.

About the PwC Network

PwC firms help organizations and individuals create the value they're looking for. We're a network of firms in 158 countries with close to 169,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax and advisory services. Tell us what matters to you and find out more by visiting us at www.pwc.com.

Media Contact for Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.:

Jenna J. Focarino
+1-212-681-1700 ext.115
+1-845-893-7586 cell
jfocarino@torrenzano.com

SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.