Norway SWF and CalPERS Vote in Favor to Probe Toshiba
Posted on 03/15/2021
California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which oversees Norway Government Pension Fund Global, voted in favor of a proposal pushed by Singapore-based Effissimo Capital Management. The proposal is for an independent probe into the Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corporation. Effissimo Capital Management holds a 9.9% stake in Toshiba and remains its largest shareholder. CalPERS owns around 0.45% of Toshiba and NBIM has 1.32% ownership.
Effissimo Capital Management wants to look into allegations that shareholders were pressured about how to vote on director nominations ahead of 2020’s annual general meeting.
Blackrock Inc voted against the proposal by Effissimo Capital Management.
Voting Miscounts
In 2020, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, which was entrusted with counting the shareholder mail-in votes for the Toshiba meeting, had found 3.4 million uncounted shareholder votes at 975 client firms. The trust banking arm of Mizuho Financial Group said it had found 22,848 voting forms were uncounted at 371 shareholder meetings.
Keywords: California Public Employees Retirement System.
