The firm’s 2019 report reviews the recent trends in governance and disclosure practices and provides a look ahead as to what may come in 2019 with respect to shareholder engagement, ceo pay ratio, say on pay, mandatory retirement ages for directors, and other corporate governance trends.

Key highlights

The report notes that 58.6% of Equilar 100 disclosed their shareholder engagement policies in 2018, a 24.7% increase from 2017. In 2018, the number of say on pay failures nearly doubled, while less than half of Equilar 500 say on pay votes met with 95% or greater approval. The median ceo pay ratio at Equilar 500 companies was 168 to 1, while the average ceo pay ratio was 271 to 1. Over 500 directors in the Equilar 500 are within five years of their respective boards’ mandatory retirement age. Nearly 75% of Equilar 500 companies mentioned or disclosed their shareholder engagement policies in their proxies, representing a continuous uptick since 2014.

Independent report

Hogan Lovells and Donnelley Financial Solutions co-authored independent commentary to provide context and insight on public companies’ approaches to governance issues and communications with shareholders through proxy statements and other channels. Hogan Lovells partners Alex Bahn, John Beckman, Alan Dye, Amy Freed, Martha Steinman, and Lillian Tsu contributed to the report, which can be found here.