But the White House removed a crucial "s" from the end of the word "shareholders" — thus insuring that only a single shareholder who owned at least five per cent of the stock (and many corporations have no such shareholders) could add names to the ballot, not a group of shareholders banding together.
But the White House removed a crucial "s" from the end of the word "shareholders"—thus insuring that only a single shareholder who owned at least five per cent of the stock (and many corporations have no such shareholders) could add names to the ballot, not a group of shareholders banding together.
Shareholders can already mount proxy fights for control of companies, but doing that is expensive and requires insurgents to send out their own ballots to shareholders.
Those proposals, which were backed by Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy voting firm which advises major investors, received the support of 33 and 36%, respectively, of shareholders casting ballots.
As a result, JPMorgan has been working behind the scenes to avert losing the vote, calling a wide swath of shareholders to encourage them to cast a ballot.
Thirty-two percent of shareholders failed to cast their ballots and will be counted as votes against the deal, bringing the final margin of victory closer to 60percentt.
"There is a great sensitivity on the part of shareholders to be able to submit ballots without having other shareholders know how they voted," Mr. Greenstein said.
A sufficient number of shareholders must be able to force the issue onto the ballot at the fund's annual meeting and then hope to see the vote passed.
Worried about the outcome of an orthodox vote on the planned Severstal merger, the board turned down a request for a majority ballot of those who vote at a shareholder meeting on June 30th.
To the extent that a board rejects the request of a majority of shareholders to eliminate its takeover defenses, it could force the company to open the proxy ballot to directors nominated by shareholders.
