Franklin Resources Inc. shareholders on Wednesday elected all directors to the board and rejected a shareholder proposal calling for the company's investment management units to divest companies that contribute to genocide, all results that bucked contrary voting positions by some large pension funds, according to a telecast of its annual meeting.
The company plans to disclose tallies of the voting possibly later this week in its 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Matthew Walsh, Franklin spokesman, in an e-mail.
The $177.7 billion Florida State Board of Administration, Tallahassee; $176.2 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento; $14 billion Illinois State Board of Investment, Chicago; and $1 billion American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees pension plan, Washington, opposed the election of some directors to the board.
In addition, the FSBA, ISBI and AFSCME fund voted in support of the genocide proposal.
The C$201.5 billion (US$180.9 billion) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, and the C$129.5 billion Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Toronto, each voted in favor of all directors and against the genocide proposal. CalSTRS also opposed the genocide proposal.
Shareholders also voted to ratify PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditor, the key executive incentive compensation plan and the executive pay packages of top executives, including Gregory E. Johnson, chairman, CEO and president.
