The European network of independent proxy advisors, of which Frontis Governance has been a member since its foundation, was renewed following the acquisition of Proxinvest by US-based Glass Lewis last December.
With the new agreement, the European partners intend to further strengthen their collaboration, always in the spirit of offering the most accurate corporate governance analyses and the broadest support to institutional investors in the exercise of voting rights and dialogue with investee companies.
The new 'Ethos European Network' will be coordinated by Ethos Servicesa Swiss subsidiary of the Ethos Foundation in which more than 200 social security institutions participate.
In addition to Frontis and Ethos, the network also includes the investors' association DSW (Germany and Austria), the proxy advisor Corporance (Spain and Portugal) and other independent analysts, experts in corporate governance, each focusing on their own markets.
With the support of Ethos, the Network will also cover North America and Asia/Pacific, to offer clients the widest global coverage with an initial 'universe of analysis' of around 850 companies.
Read the press release by Ethos
Changes to the Frontis Governance Guidelines for 2023
The Frontis Corporate Governance Principles and Voting Guidelines for 2023 have been updated and are available in the section Documents & Links of the site. In the same section of the site, the following compliance documents with Legislative Decree 49/2019 transposing Shareholder Rights Directive II are also available.
The main changes concern alignment with the Ethos principles shared by all Network partners. In particular, the section on social and environmental sustainability has been expanded, with the addition of a chapter dedicated to guidelines on the approval of the Sustainability Report and the so-called Say on Climate.
In the new Frontis Principles, the integration of sustainability criteria into the governance analysis, such as transparency on the assessment and mitigation of non-financial risks, the integration of managerial and technical expertise into the board in the areas of IT and cybersecurity, and the establishment of a Sustainability Committee, has also been further detailed. For companies with high emissions levels, the failure to set up a dedicated Sustainability Committee may lead to a vote against the re-election of the outgoing chairman.
In order to also include Italian companies incorporated abroad in the principles, a section on the exemption of directors from liability was also included (discharge of Directors).
Frontis Governance - Corporate Governance Principles and Voting Guidelines 2023
