While U.S. oil major ExxonMobil faces a board challenge later this month focused on its emissions targets, European oil majors are seeing climate activist proposals of their own. Bloomberg Green reported last week that emissions-related proposals “are set to dominate” meetings this month at Total, BP and Shell. At the latter two, activist group Follow This has called for the companies to set targets aligned with the Paris Agreement. Early results, however, indicate limited success, with just 21% of BP’s investors voting in favor of the resolution on Wednesday. But the result is more than double the support for a similar Follow This proposal at BP in 2019, the Financial Times pointed out. A similar battle is set to play out at Shell and Total’s upcoming meetings and will indicate whether investors really want faster change at Europe’s big oil companies.
Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman was back in the spotlight again at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival, where he revealed a near 6% stake in Domino’s Pizza and praised its delivery operation and management team. As noted by The Deal, Ackman also said the likelihood of Pershing Square running another proxy contest is “extremely low” because companies are familiar with Pershing now and often make governance changes without public battles. The appearance prompted Gordon Haskett Research Advisors to wonder whether Pershing should still be considered an activist fund.
Finally, ValueAct is returning to Japan, with a 4.4% stake in 7-Eleven parent Seven & i, Reuters reported.
Have a great weekend,
Connor