Backing for the voice of protest

SHAREHOLDERS, who have become increasingly militant over huge boardroom pay packages, have been promised they can look forward to new voting procedures at company meetings.

The pledge comes from Paul Myners, soon to take the helm at the advisory body Shareholder Voting Working Group, which identifies and attempts to remove obstacles to the corporate voting process.

The first task for Myners, former head of Gartmore Investment Management, is to bring about a review of proxy voting - a complex system that sees some of the votes cast for investors at company meetings becoming 'lost'.

Three institutional investors in Unilever, for example, said they had discovered that their votes at the last annual meeting were not counted.

Myners said: 'As part of the shareholders' and companies' commitment to transparent communication, it is vital that they can be confident that the process for voting translates shareholders' voting intentions into practice.'

Myners recently compiled a landmark report on pension fund investment, highlighting the problems facing pension funds that hope to invest in private equity.

He will head the Shareholder Voting Working group alongside Terry Pearson, who founded the body in 1999 to bring together representatives of investors, registrars, voting agents, custodians and the investor relations industry.

Myners added: 'I want the reforms to be in place by next year.'