Oracle is facing pressure from two European pension funds over corporate governance issues.
Dutch fund group PGGM and the UK’s Britain’s Railways Pension Trustee Company (Railpen) posted an open letter on PGGM’s website pushing for greater access to the board of directors and a more equitable pay structure.
This move is the latest in a long campaign by the two institutional investors, in which they have repeatedly pushed for concessions from the computer technology company.
A particular target has been the remuneration of and high degree of personal control exercised by executive chairman and former CEO Larry Ellison, who owns 25% of Oracle’s shares and last year received $67 million in base salary and stock options.
So far the two pension funds have not succeeded in making gains, commenting in their latest letter:
"Over the past four years, PGGM and Railpen have together written several letters to certain directors to begin a constructive dialogue for addressing our governance concerns. Despite numerous attempts over this period, no meeting with any director has been forthcoming."
The letter closed by calling for three actions to be taken by Oracle’s board:
"We call on the Board to properly address our serious governance concerns and demonstrate its commitment to represent the interests of all shareholders. To this end, we request that the Board:
– address board accountability by implementing proxy access especially as, according to our calculations, 68% of non-insider shareholders supported the 2014 proxy access proposal, of which our organisations were co-sponsors;
– implement a compensation structure that shareholders can support;
– and develop a policy to allow shareholders of Oracle Corporation to communicate effectively and directly with the Board."
