The world's largest sovereign wealth fund, the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) of Norway, voted against the proposal to amend the articles of incorporation to introduce a cumulative voting system at the extraordinary shareholders' meeting of Korea Zinc scheduled for the 23rd.
According to the investment banking industry on the 19th, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which operates the Norwegian government pension fund, released the voting results on the agenda for the extraordinary shareholders' meeting of Korea Zinc on its website the previous afternoon. NBIM holds approximately 1.04% of Korea Zinc's equity.
NBIM opposed not only the proposal for cumulative voting but also the proposal from Korea Zinc to limit the number of directors to 19. It opposed all candidates recommended by Korea Zinc, but voted in favor of all 14 director candidates recommended by MBK Partners and Young Poong.
NBIM explained its opposition to the cumulative voting system by saying, "A robust nomination and election process is necessary to form an effective board of directors accountable to shareholders."
It added that it considered "unsatisfactory financial and strategic performance, poor risk management, unacceptable treatment of shareholders, and undesirable environmental or social outcomes resulting from company operations," and opposed all board member candidates recommended by Korea Zinc while negatively evaluating Chairman Choi Yun-beom and the current management.
In particular, it stated that "shareholders should have the right to demand changes to the board if it does not act in their best interests," and that it would consider whether the board did not take appropriate actions following shareholder requests, whether it tried to avoid shareholder proposals, and whether it restricted shareholder rights without their approval.
Previously, the largest U.S. pension funds, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), also voted against the cumulative voting system. The National Pension Service decided to support it at the fiduciary responsibility committee.