Corporate Advisory

Vote Forecasting Vote Projections:  Alliance bases its vote projections on a proprietary combination of investor intelligence, historical voting trends and the methodology of the proxy advisory firms. This allows the client to make an informed decision based on the recommendations of Alliance as to campaign strategies, resource allocation and execution. A vote projection, an accurate one, can prevent embarrassing rejections, it can alert the company to the need for changes to the terms of the proposal and it can serve as a blueprint for an effective proxy solicitation campaign. Influence Analysis:  Alliance provides corporations with the level of influence the proxy advisory firms (ISS, Glass Lewis, Evan Jones) have on their major institutional investors. Many institutions use their own internal policies for voting on various proxy proposals while other institutions rely on proxy advisory firm guidelines as research for their voting decisions. In other instances ...

What is 'Equity Compensation' Equity compensation is non-cash pay that represents ownership in the firm. This type of compensation can take many forms, including options, restricted stock and performance shares. Equity compensation allows the employees of the firm to share in the profits via appreciation and can encourage retention, particularly if there are vesting requirements. Equity compensation has been used by many public companies and some private companies, especially  startup  companies. Recently launched firms may lack the cash or want to invest cash flow into growth initiatives, making  equity  compensation an option to attract high quality employees. Traditionally, tech companies in both the start-up phase and more mature companies have used equity compensation to reward employees. Common Types of Equity Compensation Companies that offer equity compensation can give employees stock options that offer the right to ...

Shareholder Engagement One aspect of socially responsible investing involves shareholder engagement . Owning shares in a company enables investors to raise environmental, social and corporate governance issues with corporate management. They often do this by filing or co-filing shareholder proposals (also called resolutions) which are voted on annually by a company’s shareholders. The very act of filing a proposal can lead to productive discussions with a company, sometimes leading to withdrawal of a proposal. US SIF, the professional association for socially responsible investment firms, notes: “Often, a shareholder resolution will fail to win a majority of the shares voted, but still succeed in persuading management to adopt some or all of the requested changes because the resolution was favored by a significant number of shareholders.’

In a publicly traded company, it's important to maintain a year-round dialog with major investors and shareholders. This isn't something you have to do alone. Corporate advisory firms have the experience and skills to help you with this essential relationship as a member of a board of directors. It often happens that what directors want for their company does not match what the shareholders want. While some major investors may have a more informed understanding of the workings of your business, it may also be the case that the shareholders as a whole do not have the business background to understand what the directors feel is best for the company. Other times they may simply disagree regardless of their understanding. A corporate advisory firm has the experience to communicate your plans to your shareholders. A firm can also assist in developing new plans and strategies that make sense to the company and appeal to the shareholders.  When bringing measure to the share...