Mondelez International Inc. is asking regulators for permission to ignore a shareholder proposal that calls for greater transparency on the Oreo maker’s Russian operations.
The snack company is looking to exclude a resolution from Wespath Institutional Investments LLC from the agenda of its next shareholder meeting, according to a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Shareholders including Wespath argue that Mondelez has a responsibility to show investors how it’s conducting business in Russia and Ukraine in a way that protects human rights and are calling for a third-party assessment.
The Mondelez letter, dated March 3, cites SEC guidance released in February. That guidance is expected to make it more difficult for shareholders to get a vote on proposals that aren’t directly related to a company’s core business and effectively limit resolutions on issues such as the environment, ethics and governance.
Mondelez’s operations in Russia and Ukraine “are a small part of the company’s global business operations,” according to the letter, which was written by the company’s legal representative, Gibson Dunn.
The company and the SEC didn’t respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg news.
Mondelez has said it’s committed to transparency and engages with its shareholders. The company had pledged to isolate its Russia business as a standalone operation following that country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but has since watered down that strategy.
The Mondelez letter to the SEC says the company plans to print its proxy materials on March 25, which allows only weeks for the proponents to respond and for the SEC to decide on the company’s request to exclude the proposal.
Companies can exclude proposals without SEC approval, at the risk of an enforcement action if the SEC disagrees with the decision. Generally, they will include proposals in proxies if the SEC hasn’t responded, according to Sanford Lewis, director of the Shareholder Rights Group. “When they know they have a short timeline, they seem to be hustling to meet the print deadlines,” said Lewis, who represents clients before the agency.
Last year, a similar proposal calling for Mondelez to disclose more information about its Russia and Ukraine operations garnered about 30% of shareholders’ support, surpassing a key 20% to 25% threshold that can often get executives to take requests seriously, Susana McDermott, communications director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, told Bloomberg at the time.
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Mondelez also submitted “no-action” letters dated March 3 on shareholder proposals about its lobbying efforts and how they relate to the company’s goal to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions as well as its supply chain for sugar in India.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
