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Photo = Yonhap news |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] The National Pension Service (NPS) recently exercised its voting rights to oppose the appointment of Arthur Levinson as a board director during Apple's shareholders' meeting. Levinson, who has served as the board chair since 2011 following the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs, has been with the company since 2000, marking a tenure of over 20 years.
NPS cited concerns about the potential lack of independence due to his long tenure, which exceeds 20 years. According to NPS's "Overseas Stock Voting Guidelines," the fund is likely to oppose appointments of directors who have served excessively long terms as outside directors, believing this could compromise their independence.
This guideline has led to the NPS voting against various long-serving board members in other companies as well. For instance, NPS also opposed the board chair appointment of James Hamilton at Costco last month and opposed the re-election of several Nvidia board members last year.
However, these opposition votes rarely result in the rejection of appointments, as NPS's stake in most foreign companies is relatively low, making their votes less influential compared to their holdings in domestic companies.
Despite this, the NPS continues to oppose reappointments for directors with lengthy tenures, though these directors typically receive overwhelming support from other shareholders.
As the NPS seeks to increase its influence over overseas companies through its voting rights this year, there are growing calls for a review of the guidelines, which some critics argue may not always be appropriate when applied to foreign companies.
AlphaBIZ Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
