The State Board of Administration of Florida’s proxy guidelines join a number of others in suggesting that investors vote FOR appraisal rights when available. For institutional investors, appraisal rights are a critical shareholder protection, especially in instances where the merger process raises questions or where market dislocation results in a value gap between merger and
We’ve covered before that major proxy voting analyst Taft-Hartley suggests investors vote in favor of appraisal rights and that a major pension fund’s guidelines likewise favor appraisal. Add Boston Partners, a major investment manager, to the list of those favoring appraisal rights in their proxy voting, according to their 2019 proxy voting guidelines [.pdf].
Appraisal rights can offer investors critical protections against corporate actions that do not provide shareholders fair value. Investors often recognize this – as we recently posted, proxy voting guidelines suggest investors vote in favor of appraisal. And then there are the Corporate Governance Principles [.pdf] of the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA),
The Taft-Hartley Proxy Voting Guidelines for 2019 have been released by Institutional Shareholder Services. The guidelines, which many institutional investors follow, suggest that shareholders vote “for proposals to restore or provide shareholders with the right of appraisal.” As we’ve covered before, there is meaningful academic work tying the existence of, and exercise of appraisal
Seven years ago this week, in Roam-Tel Partners v. AT&T Mobility, C.A. 5745-VCS (Del. Ch. Dec. 17, 2010), then-Vice Chancellor Strine held that in a short-form merger, a stockholder can revoke its prior waiver of its appraisal rights within the twenty-day statutory election period, absent any prejudice to the corporation. In that case, the
Cooley LLP highlights that increased appraisals are being factored into mergers. Following up on a previous piece, Cooley LLP notes that appraisal costs can be large, referencing the over $50 million added to the merger price in Dell, and further comments on the rise of appraisal claims, which Cooley calculates as a 267% increase
The Vanderbilt Law Review published this note on Vice Chancellor Laster’s disqualification of stockholders in Dell who had inadvertently voted in favor of the merger, about which ruling we’ve posted before. This note breaks down that ruling and discusses the court’s strict requirements for appraisal procedure and its affirmation that share-tracing is not required of
In a March 2016 working paper, Corporate Darwinism: Disciplining Managers in a World With Weak Shareholder Litigation, Professors James D. Cox and Randall S. Thomas detail several recent legislative and judicial actions that potentially restrict the efficacy of shareholder acquisition-oriented class actions to control corporate managerial agency costs. The authors then discuss new corporate
On May 11, Vice Chancellor Laster issued an opinion in the Dell case denying the T. Rowe Price lead petitioner’s entitlement to proceed with its appraisal case on the grounds that it (inadvertently) voted in favor of the merger, when it should have abstained or voted against. The ruling did not address the underlying valuation