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SWIPRA: New independent Swiss Proxy Advisor for Institutional Investors

EquityStory AG-News: Dynamics Group AG / Key word(s): AGM/EGM
SWIPRA: New independent Swiss Proxy Advisor for Institutional
Investors

22.03.2013 / 07:00

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Inception SWIPRA - Press Release

New independent Swiss Proxy Advisor for Institutional Investors

Zurich, March 22, 2013 - Today the Swiss foundation Swiss Proxy Advisor
(´SWIPRA´) announced its inception and the initiation of its operations.
SWIPRA was founded by Swiss pension funds and foundations and is a
non-profit organization with registered offices in Zurich, Switzerland. The
scope of its business is to provide independent proxy advice to
institutional investors on issues concerning general meetings of companies
listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. SWIPRA is independent and assesses
meeting agendas and proposals to shareholders solely with the objective of
long-term shareholder value generation. The strategic collaboration with
the Department of Banking and Finance of the University of Zurich
guarantees an objective as well as economically and empirically well
founded view.

Through the adoption of the federal initiative ´Minder´, Swiss-based
pension funds will be required, by the country´s constitution, to cast
votes at General Meetings of companies listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Specifically, they have to vote in the interest of their insured and to
periodically disclose how they voted. In January of this year,
economiesuisse, the Swiss business federation, published the Swiss
Stewardship Code for Institutional Investors, which relates to the
shareholder rights and duties of institutional investors. The code
recommends that all institutional investors shall cast their votes and,
additionally, shall publish their basic principles and processes leading to
their decisions. Such information shall be published on a yearly basis. As
a consequence, institutional investors will face increased responsibility
and disclosure requirements regarding proxies, independently from the
detailed legislation based on the new article of the Swiss constitution.

SWIPRA is an independent non-profit organization with the purpose to act as
proxy advisor for institutional investors. SWIPRA will neither operate as
an asset manager nor as a consultant for listed companies. SWIPRA will, in
connection to General Meetings, assess agenda items as well as proposals to
shareholders solely with the objective of long-term value generation and
provide its recommendations independently from the issuer. This will be
achieved by a combination of the following three elements: first, the
recommendations are based on voting principles, the so-called ´Policy
Considerations´, which will be updated and adopted, as required, for each