CANON INC.
Tokyo Stock Exchange: 7751 Meeting Date: 3/28/2014
For first time in its history, Canon Inc., which long held out on appointing outside directors to its board, will nominate two outside directors to its board at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting on March 28th. The need to appoint outside directors at Japanese companies has gained traction over the last several years. During the 2013 Japanese proxy season, boards without any outside directors typically received more negative votes for their top management nominations at their annual shareholder meetings. For Canon, this held true, as its top management received only 72.2% support in 2013. While there is still no legal requirement to appoint outside directors in Japan, the Tokyo Stock Exchange amended its listing rules in January to encourage companies to appoint at least one outside director to their boards. It is still unknown how Canon’s inclusion of outside directors on its board will affect other companies (many of which hold their annual meetings in June). Could Canon’s annual shareholder meeting be a preview of widespread inclusion of outside directors in the Japanese market?
GRUPO CLARIN S.A. (see Proxy Season Insider here)
Buenos Aires Stock Exchange: GCLA Meeting Date: 3/20/2014
CJ CORP. (see Proxy Season Insider here)
Korea Stock Exchange: 001040 Meeting Date: 3/21/2014
SVENSKA HANDELSBANKEN AB (see Proxy Season Insider here)
NASDAQ OMX Stockholm: SHB-A Meeting Date: 3/26/2014
CIELO S.A.
Bovespa – Novo Mercado: CIEL3 Meeting Date: 3/31/2014