27% of Brookfield shareholders vote for greater tax transparency

On June 9th, at the annual meeting of Brookfield Asset Management, Canada’s largest alternative asset manager 27% of shareholders voted for a proposal put forward by the BC General Employees’ Union, requiring Brookfield to adopt the Global Reporting Initiative standard on tax, which includes public country-by-country reporting.

The International Tax Review provided coverage of the vote and, while acknowledging that the proposal was not approved, quoted CICTAR’s principal analyst, Jason Ward as saying that 27% was “incredible” for a first-time resolution on an issue that is new to many investors.

“The vote in favour of the resolution at Brookfield is particularly remarkable, given it is the first time the resolution has been voted on at any Canadian-headquartered company,”

Further coverage of the vote was provided in Tax Notes where it was noted that the proposal was ‘not without support’.

In Bermuda, where Brookfield has a strong presence the Royal Gazette reported that, while the vote was not passed, ‘the groups promoting it among investors are heartened at its progress in their fight for tax transparency’, quoting Jason Ward from CICTAR.

Michael West media, in Australia asked ‘what’s the scam’ in a strongly worded piece on the shareholder vote, which noted that: “The vote in favour of the resolution at Brookfield is particularly remarkable, given it is the first time the resolution has been voted on at any Canadian headquartered company (dual listed), the first time at an asset manager and with over 18% insider holdings (8% held by the company and 10% by 8 top executives. CEO James Flatt holds almost 4% of the stock by himself with a market value of over CAD$2.6 billion).”