Christopher Babcock Featured on Exxon Shareholder Approval of Texas Redomestication

Foley & Lardner LLP partner Christopher Babcock is featured across media for his perspective on Exxon’s recent shareholder vote to reincorporate in Texas.

Babcock, speaking to the Houston Business Journal, said, “Exxon is a broadly held retail institution, and it proves that there can be support for redomestication if you appropriately explain and give the thinking that the market agrees with and the market supports.”

Discussing the evolution of proxy advisers and their influence on shareholder decisions, he explained that proxy advisers initially rose to help smaller asset managers fulfill fiduciary duties but have since begun making recommendations based on factors other than shareholder returns, including value-based investing priorities.

Babcock highlighted, “(There’s been a) rise of value-based investing, when proxy advisers made recommendations that were based on social or other values that…(were) not tied to shareholder returns.”

In the Bloomberg Law article, “Proxy Firm ISS Backs Texas Move for Small Natural Gas Company,” Babcock highlighted the irregularity in ISS’s approach further, saying, “this shows some of the concerns that have been raised about the opaqueness of proxy advisor voting recommendations.”

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