With thousands of companies holding AGMs during proxy season, it’s hard to know where to start. Glass Lewis’ Controversy Alert service can help, identifying the most crucial meetings globally and allowing investors to make better informed voting decisions with the latest information in hand.

In this post, we provide a roundup of the AGMs taking place this week that were previously highlighted by Controversy Alerts, and dive deep into the situation at Vinci. To get alerted ahead of time, get in touch and sign up for Glass Lewis’ Controversy Alert service.

Controversy Alerts April 10 — April 14, 2023

4/10 Thai Union Group Public Company Limited; Controversy Alert issued on 3/27
4/13 Vinci; issued on 3/24
4/13 Fortum Oyj; issued on 3/27
4/13 Teleperformance; issued on 3/22
4/14 ClearBridge Energy Midstream Opportunity Fund Inc; issued on 4/4

Deep Dive: Vinci

The first-ever wintertime 2022 World Cup in Qatar may be over, but its legacy lives on. A Cinderella run for Morocco, an historic Messi v Mbappé final that marked crowning confirmation of the Argentinian’s GOAT status (and possibly the high point of PSG’s season), eight newly built stadiums that will hopefully get more use than their predecessors in other host countries — and questions about how exactly those stadiums, and other infrastructure projects, were built.

Some of these questions may be posed by shareholders of Vinci, the French construction company. Late last year, a subsidiary that worked on transportation infrastructure in Qatar was charged in a French court with forced labor and violating migrant workers rights, based on complaints by Sherpa, a NGO with aims to hold multinationals accountable. Vinci has denied the claims, noting that the subsidiary’s projects in Qatar were tendered before the country was chosen to host the tournament, and has stated its intent to cooperate fully with the courts.

The investigation remains ongoing—but it’s not the only topic related to corporate social responsibility and human capital management of reputational relevance to Vinci. The company recorded four work-related fatalities at its subsidiary Vinci Autoroutes last year, and has maintained its operations in Russia despite the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

With French companies legally required to offer shareholder votes on their executive remuneration policy and the actual amounts paid out to executives in the past year, these issues put the spotlight on the company’s executive compensation program. In the past fiscal year, almost half of Vinci CEO Xavier Huillard’s annual bonus was based on managerial and E&S metrics – and these metrics paid out at 100% and 86% of maximum opportunity, respectively, representing €759,200 out of his €1,993,370 award.

In particular, the workforce safety and engagement sub-component, which paid out at 68% despite four fatalities, may raise eyebrows. The nature of what E&S data measures, and how it does so, can be vague and difficult to measure, in some cases necessitating discretionary assessments of performance. However, employee safety data is readily quantifiable, and on-the-job deaths often serve as a red-line item for bonuses. In this case, four of them still allowed for an award representing two-thirds of maximum under the relevant sub-component. This is an area that will only get more attention in France going forward, as recent updates to the AFEP-MEDEF Code (which take effect after the current reporting period) call for companies to include quantifiable E&S metrics that are related to its key social and environmental priorities.

Looking for More?

Don’t wait until the vote deadline has passed. Glass Lewis’ Controversy Alert service allows you to leverage the local market expertise of our highly knowledgeable research teams to identify the significant ESG votes that really matter for your organization ahead of time.

Receive crucial controversy alerts during the height of proxy season, fully integrated into our Viewpoint voting platform, so you don’t miss important votes. Our timely alerts are designed to provide the details you need to understand the biggest controversies at a glance, giving you time to analyze and take action through voting and engagement. You can read about the methodology here, or get in touch to sign up.