Newsroom

At the March 20th annual meeting for Disney, shareholders will have the opportunity to vote on a proposal asking the company to report on climate risks to retirement plan beneficiaries.

Oracle, Intuit, and Microsoft have recently faced similar proposals, although these have received meager support. Supporters are often concerned about the following:

1. Retirement security for employees, especially young employees with long investment time horizons

2. Reputational risks to the company

3. Recruitment challenges

For the Disney proposal, Egan-Jones has issued different recommendations based on our different policies (the frameworks by which we evaluate proposals). Examples below:

1. Recommendations for the Wealth-Focused Policy are based only upon the objective to enhance and protect shareholder wealth. Under this policy, Egan-Jones recommends AGAINST the proposal, as it unnecessarily restricts operations.

2. Recommendations for the ESG Policy consider environmental, social, and governance matters as key business risks that affect a company’s long-term profitability. Under this policy, Egan-Jones recommends FOR the proposal as investments in high-carbon companies pose both environmental and social risks. Key stakeholders of the company (employees) stand to lose greatly from retirement plan options that are exposed to these risks.

Should shareholder returns remain lackluster, Egan-Jones will consider supporting dissident electors to the board under all policies as we did last year.